Title: Shakespeare's monarchies : ruler and subject in the romances /
Authors: Jordan, Constance
Publisher: Cornell University Press,
Year: 1997
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, Tragicomedies.; Shakespeare, William, Characters Kings and rulers.; Politics and literature Great Britain History; Political plays, English History and criticism.; Kings and rulers in literature; Monarchy in literature.; Tragicomedy.; Tragicomedy History and criticism.
Abstract: Constance Jordan looks at how Shakespeare, through his romances, contributed to the cultural debates over the nature of monarchy in Jacobean England. Stressing the differences between absolutist and constitutionalist principles of rule, Jordan reveals Shakespeare's investment in the idea that a head of state should be responsive to law, and not be governed by his unbridled will. Conflicts within royal courts which occur in the romances show wives, daughters, and servants resisting tyrannical husbands, fathers, masters, and monarchs by relying on the authority of conscience. Shakespeare's Monarchies recognizes the romances as politically inflected texts and confirms Shakespeare's involvement in the public discourse of the period.
Contents: Shakespeare's romances and Jacobean political thought -- Pericles -- Cymbeline -- The winter's tale -- The tempest, i -- The tempest, ii.