LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION:‘Soule of the Age!’:The historical context of Shakespeares plays
PART ONE:SHAKESPEARES ENGLANG
1 Religious and philosophical developments
Protestantism and scientific thought
2 Government and authority
Elizabeth I(1558-1603)
James I(1603-0625)
3 Elizabethan and Jacobean society
Hierarchy and ‘degree’
4 ‘Words,words,words’:Shakespeares English
Society and language:form script to print
Literacy
Vocabulary and grammar
The limits of language
5 Plays into print
Printing Shakespeare
The First Folio(1623)
Editing Shakespeare
PART TWO:SHAKESPEARE AND THE THEATRE OF HIS TIME
6 Elizabethan and jacobean tragedy
The great age of English tragedy
Definitions of tragedy
The function of tragedy:a Renaissance debate-Sidney and Greville
Varieties of tragedy
Tragedy and revenge
Tragedy and usurpation
Tragedy and the morality play
7 shakespeares theatre
‘Common players in interludes’
‘The house with the thatched roof’:the Globe Theatre c.1959
‘One English penny’:theatres and prices in Shakespeares London
The organization of the Globe Theatre
8 Plays and audiences
Hamlet in London and The Universities
‘Played at Court’
King Lear and the divided Kingdom
Macbeth and the Scottish crown
PART THREE:CRITICAL AND ALYSIS:HAMLET(1601)OTHELLO(1604)KING LEAR(C.1605)MACBETH
……
Short biographies
Further reading
Appendix:The theatres of Shakespeares London
Index