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3 - Shakespeare on Civil and Dynastic Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2021

By
David Bevington
Edited by
David Loewenstein  and
Paul Stevens
David Loewenstein
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Paul Stevens
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

From his two historical tetralogies to his great tragedies, civil and dynastic conflict is a near-constant presence in Shakespeare’s plays. This chapter sweeps across his career to explore the political ferment against which he developed his nuanced depictions of civil discord. It begins with the political contexts that shaped the rise of the English history play in the 1590s and extends through the bitter dynastic rivalries that mark Shakespeare’s depictions of Greek and Roman history, his tragedies, and the full body of his plays. It finds that, while Shakespeare studiously avoided taking sides in the warring factions he depicts, he embraced the opportunity to study the genesis of civil strife – its causes, personal motivations, and means by which it is intermittently brought under control. Civil and dynastic conflict serves Shakespeare brilliantly as essential to his craft as playwright, with implications about civil discord at all times and in all places.

Keywords

Shakespearehistory playsfirst tetralogysecond tetralogythe HenriadtragedyTudor dynastyWars of the Rosescivil warinheritance
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and War , pp. 35 - 53
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Blanpied, John W. Time and the Artist in Shakespeare’s English Histories, Newark, University of Delaware Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Cavanagh, Dermot, Hampton-Reeves, Stuart, and Longstaffe, Stephen (eds.). Shakespeare’s Histories and Counter-Histories, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Curry, Anne. Henry V: From Playboy Prince to Warrior King, London, Allen Lane, 2015.Google Scholar
Hattaway, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Hodgdon, Barbara. The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare’s History, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, Jean E., and Rackin, Phyllis. Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare’s English Histories, London, Routledge, 1997.Google Scholar
Kastan, David Scott. Shakespeare and the Shapes of Time, Hanover, University Press of New England, 1982.Google Scholar
Leggatt, Alexander. Shakespeare’s Political Drama: The History Plays and the Roman Plays, London, Routledge, 1988.Google Scholar
Patterson, Annabel. Reading Shakespeare’s Chronicles, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Rackin, Phyllis. Stages of History: Shakespeare’s English Chronicles, London, Routledge, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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