The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare

The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare presents a broad sampling of current historical scholarship on the period of Shakespeare's career that will assist and stimulate scholars of his poems and plays. Rather than merely attempting to summarize the historical 'background' to Shakespeare, individual chapters seek to exemplify a wide variety of perspectives and methodologies currently used in historical research on the early modern period that can inform close analysis of literature. Different sections examine political history at both the national and local levels; relationships between intellectual culture and the early modern political imagination; relevant aspects of religious and social history; and facets of the histories of architecture, the visual arts, and music. Topics treated include the emergence of an early modern 'public sphere' and its relationship to drama during Shakespeare's lifetime; the role of historical narratives in shaping the period's views on the workings of politics; attitudes about the role of emotion in social life; cultures of honour and shame and the rituals and literary forms through which they found expression; crime and murder; and visual expressions of ideas of moral disorder and natural monstrosity, in printed images as well as garden architecture.

R. Malcolm Smuts, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Boston

R. Malcolm Smuts, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has had a lifelong interest in interdisciplinary scholarship on early modern Britain and Europe. His publications include Court Culture and the Origins of a Royalist Tradition in England (1987); Culture and Power in England 1585-1685 (1998) and several edited collections and articles on aspects of political and cultural history.

1. Introduction: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Frontiers, R. Malcolm Smuts
Part I: Politics
2. William Cecil Lord Burghley and the Management of Elizabeth's England, Norman Jones
3. The Earl of Essex, Paul E. J. Hammer
4. Robert Cecil and the Transition from Elizabeth to James I, Pauline Croft
5. James I and the Consolidation of British Monarchy?, R. Malcolm Smuts
6. War, Soldiers and High Politics under Elizabeth I, D. J. B. Trim
7. Shakespeare, the Irish, and Military Culture, Rory Rapple
8. Catholicism and Tyranny in Shakespeare's Warwickshire, Glyn Parry
9. Ancient Liberties, Royal Honour, and the Politics of Commonweal in English Forests, 1558-1625, Dan Beaver
Part II: Intellectual Culture and Political Thought and Imagination
10. Poets, Patronage and the Prince's Court, Timothy Wilks
11. The Theatre and the 'Post-Reformation Public Sphere', Peter Lake
12. Rhetorical Training and the Elizabethan Grammar School, Peter Mack
13. English Vernacular Historical Writing and Holinshed's Chronicles, Daniel Woolf and Jane Wong Yeang Chui
14. European Historiography in English Political Culture, Nicholas Popper
15. Roman History, Essex, and Late Elizabethan Political Culture, Paulina Kewes
16. Other Republicanisms, Debora Shuger
17. The Gordian Knot of Policy: Statecraft and the Prudent Prince, Alexandra Gajda
18. Seneca and English Political Culture, Curtis Perry
19. David Hume, Richard Verstegan, and the Battle for Britain, Arthur Williamson
20. The Politics of Race in England, Scotland, and Ireland, Brendan Kane and R. Malcolm Smuts
Part III: Aspects of Religious Culture
21. English Catholics and the Continent, Katy Gibbons
22. The Bible in English Culture: The Age of Shakespeare, Naomi Tadmor
23. Religious Nonconformity and the Quality of Mercy: The Merchant of Venice in Reformation Context, Ethan H. Shagan
24. Protestantism and the Devil, Tom Webster
Part IV: Social Beliefs and Practices
25. The Affective Life in Shakespearean England, Linda Pollock
26. Chivalry and the English Gentleman, Richard Cust
27. Elizabethan Verse Libel, Alan Bryson
28. Gender, Writing Technologies, and Early Modern Epistolary Communications, James Daybell
29. The Shamings of Falstaff, Brian Weiser
30. Cuckold's Haven: Gender Inversion in Popular Culture, Susan D. Amussen
31. 'Murder's Crimson Badge': Homicide in the Age of Shakespeare, K. J. Kesselring
32. Thinking with Poison, Alastair Bellany
33. Criminal London: Fear and Danger in Shakespeare's City, Paul Griffiths
34. Families and Households in Early Modern London, c.1550-1640, Vanessa Harding
35. Theatre, Church, and Neighbourhood in Early Modern Blackfriars, Christopher Highley
36. The Cultural Geography of St Paul's Precinct, Roze Hentschell
Part V: Architecture, Visual Culture, and Music
37. Art and Architecture in Provincial England, Robert Tittler
38. Garden Design and Experience in Shakespeare's England, Luke Morgan
39. Art Collecting and Patronage in Shakespeare's England, Elizabeth Goldring
40. Graphic Satire and the Printed Image in Shakespeare's London, Helen Pierce
41. Music and the Stage in the Time of Shakespeare, Ross w. Duffin
Bibliography