Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare
eBook - ePub

Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare

A Way Out of the Wreck

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare

A Way Out of the Wreck

About this book

The four last plays of Shakespeare's First Folio-Cymbeline, The Tempest, Henry VIII, and The Winter's Tale-provide underappreciated resources for political thought and reflection. Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare: A Way Out of the Wreck examines the ruling communities in each of these plays, exploring what virtues are dramatized as necessary in a courtier's fulfillment of his or her political obligations. By lending courtly virtues their close attention, Shakespearean audiences can better appreciate how much a given court has been reformed or could be further reformed in the future. Indeed, these four late plays prove remarkably united in their presentation of five virtues-patience, piety, fidelity, clemency, and diligence-which consistently appear desirable for rulers to have and regimes to encourage. Moreover, the visions of tyranny offered in these plays remind readers how much is at stake should these courtly virtues decay or collapse. Their presence or absence signals whether any political community will, to borrow the language of Henry VIII, chart for themselves "a way out of the wreck."

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Yes, you can access Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare by Nicolas McAfee in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Political History & Theory. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction: The Search for Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare
  7. Chapter 1: Reconstituting the Court of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline
  8. Chapter 2: The Political Postmortems of Henry
  9. Chapter 3: The Rebirth of Political Community in The Winter’s Tale
  10. Chapter 4: Prospero and His Competition
  11. Conclusion: The Coherence of Shakespeare’s Courtly Virtues
  12. Bibliography
  13. About the Author