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Princeton University Library Catalog
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Breaking the Shakespearean code : King Lear, gunpowder and the scholarship of 'innocent fraud' / Mike Wilcock.
Author
Wilcock, Mike
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Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
Dublin, Ireland : Carysfort Press, [2016]
©2016
Description
xiv, 294 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
Availability
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
PR2819 .W55 2016
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Details
Subject(s)
Christianity and literature
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Reformation
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Shakespeare, William 1564-1616
—
King Lear
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Summary note
"The book sees 'King Lear' as a play about division, and interprets that division in terms of 16/17th-century European-wide religious conflicts that followed the Reformation split between Rome and Protestantism. Countries are 'in discord', and kingdoms are divided. King James I claimed four kingdoms. Two were Protestant; two were Catholic. The book explores these tensions particularly through the suffering of Lear, and the 'pilgrimage' of Gloucester with Lear's 'godson', Edgar. Edgar/Lear's password (Folio: 'Sweet Mariorum') suggests that the name Mary is central, as indeed are other names and anagrams. Mary, Queen of Scots was, like Cordelia, a British princess, who became Queen of France, but also like her died in a British prison at the hands of ruthless political operatives. Thus Cordelia's unjust execution in Act 5 is a kind of pietà, an image of the cruel fate of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary's martyrdom in 1587 created a tsunami of fury that culminated in the madness of the Gunpowder Plot. The drama intends to 'catch the conscience of the king', for James had co-operated fully with the English in the execution of Mary in 1587. He had chosen power over love, and the struggle between those incompatible old enemies is a key not only to the opening scene, but is the central preoccupation of the play." --publisher's website.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-287) and index.
Contents
Land, love, and the real deal
The war in King Lear
'Infra quatuor Maria'
Real Mary-Gold
Filtering the Shakespearean Lake.
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ISBN
9781909325807 ((hbk))
1909325805 ((hbk))
LCCN
2016478350
OCLC
945947758
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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