Shakespeare on the edge
Subtitle: border-crossing in the tragedies and the Henriad
By: Lisa Hopkins.
Publisher: Ashgate Pub.
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 154
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Tragedies.; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.; Henry IV, King of England, 1367-1413 -- In literature.; Henry V, King of England, 1387-1422 -- In literature.; Historical drama, English -- History and criticism.; Boundaries in literature.; Islands in literature.; Tragedy.; Scottish Borders (England and Scotland) -- In literature.; Welsh Borders (England and Wales) -- In literature.
Description: "This book analyses works by not only Shakespeare but also his contemporaries to argue that many of the plays of Shakespeare's central period, from the second tetralogy to Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, engage with the idea of England's borders. But borders, it claims, are not only of geopolitical significance. In Shakespeare's imagination and indeed in that of his culture, eschatological overtones also accrue to the idea of the border. This is because the countries of the Celtic fringe were often discussed in terms of the supernatural and fairy lore and, in particular, the rivers which were often used as boundary markers were invested with heavily mythologized personae."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The marches: Henry IV and Henry V; title: The coast: Hamlet; title: The border: Macbeth; title: Islands: Othello; title: The edge: King Lear.