Shakespeare, Marlowe, and the politics of France

Taking a wide-ranging intertextual approach, Richard Hillman produces fresh readings of some familiar Early Modern English plays by setting them against political and cultural discourses concerning France, as the latter informed contemporary English consciousness. The English works explored go beyond those directly representing French affairs, on the premise that dramatic treatments of English historical topics, notably by Shakespeare and Marlowe, were inflected by events across the Channel. Taking a wide-ranging intertextual approach, Richard Hillman sets Early Modern English play-texts against political and cultural discourses concerning France, as these informed contemporary English consciousness. The English works explored go beyond those directly representing French affairs; the French examples include dramatic treatments of Joan of Arc and of the assassination of the Guises by Henri III. In addition to its fresh readings of some familiar plays, the book proposes, as unique to the English-French dynamic, a theoretical model relating history, discourse and subjectivity. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 7 Textual Note......Page 8 1. Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France......Page 9 2. The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of) France......Page 38 3. Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes......Page 55 4. Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises......Page 80 5. Turning and Turning Again:Shakespeare's First Tetralogy......Page 120 6. ``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men''......Page 179 Notes......Page 206 Works Cited......Page 235 Index......Page 254