Ireland is increasingly recognized as a crucial element in early modern British literary and political history. Christopher Highley's book explores the most serious crisis the Elizabethan regime faced: its attempts to subdue and colonize the native Irish. Through a range of literary representations from Shakespeare and Spenser, and contemporaries like John Hooker, John Derricke, George Peele and Thomas Churchyard he shows how these writers produced a complex discourse about Ireland that cannot be reduced to a simple ethnic opposition. This book challenges traditional views about the impact of Spenser's experience in Ireland on his cultural identity, while also arguing that the interaction between English and Ireland is a powerful and provocative subtext in the work of Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists. Highley argues that the confrontation between an English imperial presence and a Gaelic 'other' was a profound factor in the definition of an English poetic self.

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This chapter examines the relationship between theater and church in the early modern London parish of St. Anne, Blackfriars. From the 1580s, the parish of St Anne gained notoriety for its Puritan ministers and residents. For a brief period in the 1590s, these godly forces prevented Burbage, Shakespeare, and their fellows from opening a new indoor theater in part of the old Dominican monastery. But eventually the theatre opened and a culture of performing and playgoing became a well-established part of the local life. By looking closely at the individuals involved and at the social and economic forces at play in the Blackfriars, this chapter argues that coexistence, not conflict, characterized relations between the Godly and their neighborhood playhouse in this corner of the City.

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