The Year of Lear : Shakespeare in 1606 / James Shapiro.
2015
PR2983 .S467 2015 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
The Year of Lear : Shakespeare in 1606 / James Shapiro.
Author
Shapiro, James, 1955-
Edition
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
ISBN
9781416541646 hardcover
1416541640 hardcover
9781476745794 electronic book
147674579X electronic book
1416541640 hardcover
9781476745794 electronic book
147674579X electronic book
Published
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Language
English
Description
xi, 367 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Call Number
PR2983 .S467 2015
Dewey Decimal Classification
822.3/3
Summary
"Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and shaped the three great tragedies he wrote that year--King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn--King Lear--then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. It was a memorable year in England as well--and a grim one, in the aftermath of a terrorist plot conceived by a small group of Catholic gentry that had been uncovered at the last hour. The foiled Gunpowder Plot would have blown up the king and royal family along with the nation's political and religious leadership. The aborted plot renewed anti-Catholic sentiment and laid bare divisions in the kingdom. It was against this background that Shakespeare finished Lear, a play about a divided kingdom, then wrote a tragedy that turned on the murder of a Scottish king, Macbeth. He ended this astonishing year with a third masterpiece no less steeped in current events and concerns: Antony and Cleopatra. The Year of Lear sheds light on these three great tragedies by placing them in the context of their times, while also allowing us greater insight into how Shakespeare was personally touched by such events as a terrible outbreak of plague and growing religious divisions. For anyone interested in Shakespeare, this is an indispensable book"-- Provided by publisher.
"Pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and influenced three of his greatest tragedies written that year - King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra"-- Provided by publisher.
"Pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and influenced three of his greatest tragedies written that year - King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-354) and index.
Record Appears in
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Table of Contents
Prologue : January 5, 1606
The King's Man
Division of the Kingdoms
From Leir to Lear
Possession
The Letter
Massing Relics
Remember, Remember
Hymenaei
Equivocation
Another Hell above the Ground
The King's Evil
Unfinished Business
Queen of Sheba
Plague
Epilogue : December 26, 1606.
The King's Man
Division of the Kingdoms
From Leir to Lear
Possession
The Letter
Massing Relics
Remember, Remember
Hymenaei
Equivocation
Another Hell above the Ground
The King's Evil
Unfinished Business
Queen of Sheba
Plague
Epilogue : December 26, 1606.