Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare 1592-1604 (Oxford English Monographs)

Texts and Traditions explores Shakespeare's thoroughgoing engagement with the religious culture of his time. In the wake of the recent resurgence of interest in Shakespeare's Catholicism, Groves eschews a reductively biographical approach and considers instead the ways in which Shakespeare's borrowing from both the visual culture of Catholicism and the linguistic wealth of the Protestant English Bible enriched his drama. Through close readings of a number of plays-- Romeo and Juliet , King John , 1 Henry IV , Henry V , and Measure for Measure --Groves unearths and explains previously unrecognized allusions to the Bible, the Church's liturgy, and to the mystery plays performed in England in Shakespeare's boyhood. Texts and Traditions provides new evidence of the way in which Shakespeare exploited his audience's cultural memory and biblical knowledge in order to enrich his ostensibly secular drama and argues that we need to unravel the interpretative possibilities of these religious nuances in order fully to grasp the implications of his plays. Texts and Traditions explores Shakespeare's thoroughgoing engagement with the religious culture of his time. In the wake of the recent resurgence of interest in Shakespeare's Catholicism, Groves eschews a reductively biographical approach and considers instead the ways in which Shakespeare's borrowing from both the visual culture of Catholicism and the linguistic wealth of the Protestant English Bible enriched his drama. Through close readings of a number of plays - Romeo and Juliet, King John, 1 Henry IV, Henry V,and Measure for Measure - Groves unearths and explains previously unrecognised allusions to the Bible, the Church's liturgy, and to the mystery plays performed in England in Shakespeare's boyhood. Texts and Traditions provides new evidence of the way in which Shakespeare exploited his audience's cultural memory and biblical knowledge in order to enrich his ostensibly secular drama and argues that we need to unravel the interpretative possibilities of these religious nuances in order fully to grasp the implications of his plays. Explores Shakespeare's Engagement With The Religious Culture Of His Time. Through Readings Of A Number Of Plays - Romeo And Juliet, King John, 1 Henry Iv, Henry V, And Measure For Measure, This Work Explains Allusions To The Bible, The Church's Liturgy, And To The Mystery Plays Performed In England In Shakespeare's Boyhood. Drama And The Word : The Bible On The Early Modern Stage -- Shakespeare's Incarnational Aesthetic : The Mystery Plays And Catholicism -- Comedic Form And Paschal Motif In The First And Second Quartos Of Romeo And Juliet -- I Am Not He Shall Buyld The Lord A House : Religious Imagery And The Succession To The English Throne In King John -- Covering Discretion With A Coat Of Folly : The Redemptive Self-fashioning Of Hal -- Usurp The Beggary He Was Never Born To : Measure For Measure And The Questioning Of Divine Kingship. Beatrice Groves. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [189]-221) And Index. Contents......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 1. Drama and the Word: The Bible on the Early Modern Stage......Page 23 2. Shakespeare’s Incarnational Aesthetic: The Mystery Plays and Catholicism......Page 39 3. Comedic Form and Paschal Motif in the First and Second Quartos of Romeo and Juliet......Page 73 4. ‘I am not he shall buyld the Lord a house’: Religious Imagery and the Succession to the English Throne in King John......Page 102 5. ‘Covering discretion with a coat of folly’: The Redemptive Self-Fashioning of Hal......Page 134 6. ‘Usurp the beggary he was never born to’: Measure for Measure and the Questioning of Divine Kingship......Page 167 Conclusion......Page 197 Bibliography......Page 202 C......Page 236 F......Page 237 H......Page 238 K......Page 239 M......Page 240 P......Page 241 R......Page 242 T......Page 243 W......Page 244 To Larkin, in 1954, rood-lofts (carved wooden balconies which surmounted the rood screen and supported the rood) have become the epitome of arcane church furniture which only a 'ruin-bibber, randy for antique' would be able to describe.