Description
Book SynopsisWilliam Shakespeare's plays are a guide to how individuals react to the competing pressures of statecraft and personal ambition, fear and love. This book not only considers these cases in the plays themselves, but also in the sources available to Shakespeare - the techniques Shakespeare used to transform history into drama.
Trade Review"In Shakespeare's Consuls, Cardinals, and Kings, Dick Riley offers an introduction to the ways that Shakespeare turned his sources into plays on both Roman and English history, analyzing what the playwright carefully adopted, what he chose to leave out, and what he reworked. By providing answers to these important questions as well as offering explanations of particular scenes and incidents that demonstrate why Shakespeare's dramas appealed to his audience, his book is an informative and useful guide for students new to Shakespeare studies."--Gerald M. Pinciss, Professor of English Emeritus at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, author of Why Shakespeare?
Table of ContentsPreface Acknoweldgments 1 In Servile Fearfulness: Julius Caesar 2 Her Infinite Variety: Antony and Cleopatra 3 The Hearts of All People Shall Revolt from Him: King John 4 What Subject Can Give Sentence on His King?: Richard II 5 Will Fortune Never Come with Both Hands Full?: Henry IV Parts One and Two 6 God Fought for Us: Henry V 7 Once More We Sit in England's Royal Throne: Henry VI, Parts One, Two, and Three 8 Full of Danger Is the Duke of Gloucester: Richard III 9 These Fierce Vanities: Henry VIII
