Inscribing the time
Subtitle: Shakespeare and the end of Elizabethan England
By: Eric S. Mallin.
Series: The New historicism ;; 33
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Homes and haunts -- England.; Literature and history -- England -- History -- 16th century.; Dramatists, English -- Homes and haunts -- England.; Historicism in literature.; Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603.; England -- Intellectual life -- 16th century.
Description: Combining the resources of new historicism, feminism, and postmodern textual analysis, Eric Mallin reveals how contemporary pressures left their marks on three Shakespeare plays written at the end of Elizabeth's reign. Close attention to the language of Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night reveals how Shakespeare registered the consciousness of transition and ending that underlay England's social fabric at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The plays further register in complex ways the cultural presence of social or psychic crises. Troilus reflects the rebellion of the Earl of Essex and the failure of the courtly, chivalric style. Hamlet resonates with the danger of the bubonic plague and the difficult succession history of James I. Twelfth Night is imbued with nostalgia for an earlier period of Elizabeth's rule, when her control over religious and erotic affairs seemed more secure.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.