Shakespeare’s Arguments with History

Literature and the Culture of Lying Before the Enlightenment

“…Cultures of education, religion, work and writing were in step (Enterline 2012). Rhetoric brought with it great benefits: an ability to write, argue and speak in a variety of sophisticated ways for any number of causes, learned through the practice of studying topics in utramque partem (Altman 1978;Knowles 2002). But it also brought with it attendant anxieties which are, I suspect, in Kant's mind, as characteristics of the culture he wishes to sweep away in favour of a return to logical inquiry.…”

Shakespeare's History Plays : Rethinking Historicism

“…The resurrected personages of history now spoke for themselves and the audience, free from the directives of a didactic narrator, could bear witness to the meaning of experience, rather than accept the truism of precept, by hearing and seeing arguments and actions, words and deeds. 112 To adapt Stephen Greenblatt's famous phrase, here is a real chance 'to speak with the dead', 113 because the fi gures of history are being reanimated quite literally on the stage -albeit in an anachronistic and culturally mediated form.…”

“…An audience is surely left aghast at such single-minded piety which has rendered the king politically blind and lame. 120 In a world that is plainly governed by human action rather than providence, Henry's court is quickly overrun with ambitious individuals who, as the makers of history, are not content to sit back and wait for things to happen. Henry's placid inaction serves both to focus our attention sharply on the actions of others and to highlight how different things might have been if Henry had taken the decisions he needed to at vital moments.…”

“Quick Comedians”: Mary Sidney, Samuel Daniel and the Theatrum Mundi in

“…Ronald Knowles argues that in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, "nothing escapes representation since we are reminded of actors dressing up as characters" and that the climactic victory of Octavius is itself "a representation within a play full of representations". 26 With these points in mind, I argue that Shakespeare's play engages in numerous metatheatrical moments in order to highlight the dependency of the sovereigns upon the mediation and representation of their political authority; in this sense, I conclude, Shakespeare's play appears in dialogue with the coterie dramas, rather than antagonistic towards them.…”