Distributed for University of Wales Press
Shakespeare’s Settings and a Sense of Place
Shakespeare’s plays are powerfully shaped by their sense of place. From Romeo and Juliet’s fiery, divided Verona to the mists and ghosts of Hamlet’s Denmark or Macbeth’s Inverness, location in Shakespeare is often as much a character as any of his protagonists. Unlike his other characters, however, it is still possible to visit many of the locations in Shakespeare’s plays, and author and scholar Ralph Berry does just that, visiting each of the places that inspired the Bard’s imagination.
Examining locations Shakespeare knew from personal experience, such as Windsor; locations he created through imagination, such as Elsinore, based on far-off Kronborg Castle; and locations important because Shakespeare’s plays were performed there, such as Hampton Court and the Great Hall of the Middle Temple, Shakespeare’s Settings and a Sense of Place is a vivid and unique approach to the great author’s work, sure to appeal to fans and scholars alike.
Examining locations Shakespeare knew from personal experience, such as Windsor; locations he created through imagination, such as Elsinore, based on far-off Kronborg Castle; and locations important because Shakespeare’s plays were performed there, such as Hampton Court and the Great Hall of the Middle Temple, Shakespeare’s Settings and a Sense of Place is a vivid and unique approach to the great author’s work, sure to appeal to fans and scholars alike.
144 pages | 20 halftones | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | © 2016
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Shakespeare’s Elsinore
2. Elsinore Revisited
3. Shakespeare at the Middle Temple
4. Haddon Hall and the Catholic Network
5. Ephesus and The Comedy of Errors
6. Shakespeare’s Venice
7. Hampton Court Palace and Whitehall
8. Windsor and The Merry Wives
9. Richard III’s England
10. Falstaff’s Tavern
11. Johnson’s London
12. Ben Johnson at Althorp: Memoir of a Royal Visit
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Shakespeare’s Elsinore
2. Elsinore Revisited
3. Shakespeare at the Middle Temple
4. Haddon Hall and the Catholic Network
5. Ephesus and The Comedy of Errors
6. Shakespeare’s Venice
7. Hampton Court Palace and Whitehall
8. Windsor and The Merry Wives
9. Richard III’s England
10. Falstaff’s Tavern
11. Johnson’s London
12. Ben Johnson at Althorp: Memoir of a Royal Visit