England's time of crisis : from Shakespeare to Milton : a cultural history

Many events of the divided society from Elizabeth I to Charles I were taken as an unmistakable sign that the world was entering its last days. This text shows how pervasive was this pessimistic mood and how powerfully it affected English writing from Shakespeare to Milton. Front Matter....Pages i-vii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 England’s Time of Crisis....Pages 3-6 This Luckless Kingdom....Pages 7-24 The Corrupted Church....Pages 25-36 London: the Corrupted City....Pages 37-52 The Corrupted Court....Pages 53-77 The Corrupted World....Pages 78-102 A Great Hazard: the Coming of Civil War....Pages 103-125 Front Matter....Pages 127-127 Shakespeare and the Crisis of Authority....Pages 129-191 Counterfeit Representations: Tragedy at the Stuart Court....Pages 192-255 The Private World of Donne, Burton and Browne....Pages 256-318 The Public World of Clarendon, Hobbes and Milton....Pages 319-376 Back Matter....Pages 377-391 England, from Elizabeth I to Charles I, was a divided and perpetually anxious society that had to face up to external invasion in the Spanish Armada, to the threat of internal subversion in the gunpowder plot, and ultimately to the desperate prospect of Civil War. The growth of London as a center of entertainment and pleasure led the English to believe that the world was heading for it's last days. This book shows how persuasive this pessimistic mood was and how powerfully it affected English writing from Shakespeare to Milton.