The Bible On The Shakespearean Stage

The first volume to consider how the context of early modern biblical interpretation shaped Shakespeare's plays.

The first full-length study of the ways in which Shakespearean drama influenced and expanded notions of inheritance in early modern England.

This ground-breaking new book uncovers the way Shakespeare draws upon the available literature and visual representations of the hand to inform his drama. Providing an analysis of gesture, touch, skill and dismemberment in a range of Shakespeare's works, it shows how the hand was perceived in Shakespeare's time as an indicator of human agency, emotion, social and personal identity. It demonstrates how the hand and its activities are described and embedded in Shakespeare's texts and about its role on the Shakespearean stage: as part of the actor's body, in the language as metaphor, and as a morbid stage-prop. Understanding the cultural signifiers that lie behind the early modern understanding of the hand and gesture, opens up new and sometimes disturbing ways of reading and seeing Shakespeare's plays.

Excerpt from Shakespeare and the Bible: To Which Is Added Prayers on the Stage, Proper and Improper; Shakespeare's Use of the Sacred Name of Deity; The Stage Viewed From a Scriptural and Moral Point; The Old Mysteries and Moralities Precursors of the English Stage Where, all unrivalled, all alone, Bold Shakespeare sat, and look'd creation through, The minstrel monarch of the worlds he drew P That throne is cold that lyre in death unstrung, On whose proud note delighted wonder hung, Yet old oblivion, as in wrath he sweeps, One spot shall spare - the grave where Shakespeare sleeps. Rulers and ruled in common gloom may lie, But Nature's laureate bards shall never die, Art's chiselled boast, and glory's trophied shore, Must live in numbers, or can live no more. While sculptured Jove some nameless waste may claim, Still rolls th' Olympic car in Pindar's fame; Troy's doubtful walls, in ashes passed away, Yet frown on Greece in Homer's deathless lay Rome slowly sinking in her crumbling fanes, Stands all immortal in her Maro's strains So, too, yon giant empress of the isles, On whose broad sway the sun forever smiles, TO Time's unsparing rage one day must bend, And all her triumphs in her Shakespeare end. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Shakespeare and the Bible, to which is added, prayers on the stage, proper and improper; Shakespeare's use of the sacred name of deity; The stage viewed from a scriptural and moral point; The old mysteries and moralities the precursors of the English stage. A compendium of the religious wisdom of Shakespeare.

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This book analyzes Shakespeare’s use of biblical allusions and evocation of doctrinal topics in Hamlet, Measure for Measure, The Winter’s Tale, Richard II, and The Merchant of Venice. It identifies references to theological and doctrinal commonplaces such as sin, grace, confession, damnation, and the Fall in these plays, affirming that Shakespeare’s literary imagination is very much influenced by his familiarity with the Bible and also with matters of church doctrine. This theological and doctrinal subject matter also derives its significance from genres as diverse as travel narratives, sermons, political treatises, and royal proclamations. This study looks at how Shakespeare’s deployment of religious topics interacts with ideas circulating via other cultural texts and genres in society. It also analyzes how religion enables Shakespeare’s engagement with cultural debates and political developments in England: absolutism and law; radical political theory; morality and law; and conceptions of nationhood.