The tainted muse : prejudice and presumption in Shakespeare and his times

This book is a masterful and engaging exploration of both Shakespeare's works and his age. Concentrating on six recurring prejudices in Shakespeare’s plays—such as misogyny, elitism, distrust of effeminacy, and racism—Robert Brustein examines how Shakespeare and his contemporaries treated them. More than simply a thematic study, the book reveals a playwright constantly exploiting and exploring his own personal stances. These prejudices, Brustein finds, are not unchanging; over time they vary in intensity and treatment. Shakespeare is an artist who invariably reflects the predilections of his age and yet almost always manages to transcend them. Brustein considers the whole of Shakespeare's plays, from the early histories to the later romances, though he gives special attention to __Hamlet, King Lear, Othello,__ and __The Tempest__. Drawing comparisons to plays by Marlowe, Middleton, and Marston, Brustein investigates how Shakespeare’s contemporaries were preoccupied with similar themes and how these different artists treated the current prejudices in their own ways. Rather than confining Shakespeare to his age, this book has the wonderful quality of illuminating both what he shared with his time and what is unique about his approach.

This book is a masterful and engaging exploration of both Shakespeare's works and his age. Concentrating on six recurring prejudices in Shakespeare’s plays—such as misogyny, elitism, distrust of effeminacy, and racism—Robert Brustein examines how Shakespeare and his contemporaries treated them. More than simply a thematic study, the book reveals a playwright constantly exploiting and exploring his own personal stances. These prejudices, Brustein finds, are not unchanging; over time they vary in intensity and treatment. Shakespeare is an artist who invariably reflects the predilections of his age and yet almost always manages to transcend them.

 

Brustein considers the whole of Shakespeare's plays, from the early histories to the later romances, though he gives special attention to Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and The Tempest. Drawing comparisons to plays by Marlowe, Middleton, and Marston, Brustein investigates how Shakespeare’s contemporaries were preoccupied with similar themes and how these different artists treated the current prejudices in their own ways. Rather than confining Shakespeare to his age, this book has the wonderful quality of illuminating both what he shared with his time and what is unique about his approach.

This book explores Shakespeare's complicated attitudes toward women; his admiration of blunt, plainspoken men; his reverence for monarchy and his distrust of democracy; his complex treatment of blacks, Jews, and slaves; and his even more complex metaphysics and attitudes toward Catholicism and Protestantism. Drawing comparisons to plays by Marlowe, Middleton, and Marston, the author investigates how Shakespeare's contemporaries were preoccupied with similar themes, and how these different artists treated the current prejudices in their own ways Presents an exploration of both Shakespeare's works and his age. Focusing on six recurring prejudices in Shakespeare's plays - such as misogyny, elitism, distrust of effeminacy, and racism, this title examines how Shakespeare and his contemporaries treated them. It reveals a playwright constantly exploiting and exploring his own personal stances. Content: Introduction: the hidden imposthume -- Misogyny: the Hamlet obsession -- Effemiphobia: the Osric courtier -- Machismo: the Hotspur model -- Elitism and mobocracy: from Jack Cade to Caliban -- Racialism: the Moor and the Jew -- Intelligent design: Lear's abyss -- Afterword: lancing the canker.