Book contents
- Shakespeare at War
- Shakespeare at War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘The Truth for Which We Are Fighting’
- Chapter 2 The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) and Garrick’s Shakespearean Nationalism
- Chapter 3 Revolutionary Shakespeare
- Chapter 4 Hamlet Mobilized
- Chapter 5 Shakespeare, the North-West Passage, and the Russian War
- Chapter 6 ‘Now for Our Irish Wars’
- Chapter 7 Shakespeare and the Survival of Middle England
- Chapter 8 Ellen Terry Stars at the Shakespeare Hut
- Chapter 9 The 1916 Shakespeare Tercentenary at № 1 Camp in Calais
- Chapter 10 Shakespeare Does His Bit for the War Effort
- Chapter 11 Germanizing Shakespeare during the First World War
- Chapter 12 Readers and Rebels
- Chapter 13 Forgotten Histories
- Chapter 14 ‘Now Good or Bad, ’tis but the Chance of War’
- Chapter 15 ‘Precurse of Feared Events’
- Chapter 16 But What Are We Fighting For?
- Chapter 17 Henry V and the Battle of Powerscourt
- Chapter 18 Unser Shakespeare in Nazi Germany
- Chapter 19 Framing the Jew
- Chapter 20 G. Wilson Knight’s ‘Royal Propaganda’ in ‘This Sceptred Isle’ (1941)
- Chapter 21 Shakespeare’s Desert Camouflage
- Chapter 22 ‘May I with Right and Conscience Make This Claim?’
- Chapter 23 Henry V and the Invasion of Iraq
- Chapter 24 Who Pays the Price?
- Chapter 25 ‘Mere Prattle, without Practice, Is All His Soldiership’
- Chapter 26 ‘Thou Hast Set Me on the Rack’
- Afterword
- Notes
- Index
Chapter 14 - ‘Now Good or Bad, ’tis but the Chance of War’
Counter-Punching against Appeasement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2023
- Shakespeare at War
- Shakespeare at War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘The Truth for Which We Are Fighting’
- Chapter 2 The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) and Garrick’s Shakespearean Nationalism
- Chapter 3 Revolutionary Shakespeare
- Chapter 4 Hamlet Mobilized
- Chapter 5 Shakespeare, the North-West Passage, and the Russian War
- Chapter 6 ‘Now for Our Irish Wars’
- Chapter 7 Shakespeare and the Survival of Middle England
- Chapter 8 Ellen Terry Stars at the Shakespeare Hut
- Chapter 9 The 1916 Shakespeare Tercentenary at № 1 Camp in Calais
- Chapter 10 Shakespeare Does His Bit for the War Effort
- Chapter 11 Germanizing Shakespeare during the First World War
- Chapter 12 Readers and Rebels
- Chapter 13 Forgotten Histories
- Chapter 14 ‘Now Good or Bad, ’tis but the Chance of War’
- Chapter 15 ‘Precurse of Feared Events’
- Chapter 16 But What Are We Fighting For?
- Chapter 17 Henry V and the Battle of Powerscourt
- Chapter 18 Unser Shakespeare in Nazi Germany
- Chapter 19 Framing the Jew
- Chapter 20 G. Wilson Knight’s ‘Royal Propaganda’ in ‘This Sceptred Isle’ (1941)
- Chapter 21 Shakespeare’s Desert Camouflage
- Chapter 22 ‘May I with Right and Conscience Make This Claim?’
- Chapter 23 Henry V and the Invasion of Iraq
- Chapter 24 Who Pays the Price?
- Chapter 25 ‘Mere Prattle, without Practice, Is All His Soldiership’
- Chapter 26 ‘Thou Hast Set Me on the Rack’
- Afterword
- Notes
- Index
Summary
This essay focuses on the debate over Chamberlain’s attempts at ‘appeasement’ during his negotiations with the presidents of Germany, Italy, and Czechoslovakia, who would soon become the central European Axis powers in the Second World War. It specifically looks at two intertwined public protests in 1938 against Chamberlain’s plans to cede the German-speaking regions of Austria to Hitler, in exchange for Hitler not declaring all-out war in Europe. In addition to analysing Troilus and Cressida, directed by Michael Macowan in modern-day battle dress at the Westminster Theatre in London, this essay turns not only to Punch magazine’s review of the play in their October 1938 issue, but also to the other numerous cartoons, ironic poems, and satiric song lyrics that filled that issue, all clearly condemning Chamberlain’s reluctance, often called cowardice, to realize the consequences of agreeing to Hitler’s demands.
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- Shakespeare at WarA Material History, pp. 137 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023