As more and more scholars come to realise that the accepted story of William Shakespeare is untenable, this book tries to unmask the covert Irish influence on his work and the remarkable career of William Nugent, the only Irish candidate ever put forward for Shakespeare. It includes the full text of many original documents on Irish history, from the Reformation to the 1641 Rebellion. "That in these lines I could as well express, As in my soul I do admire her beauty, Or that great Daniel, fit for such a task, This wonder of our Isle, had seen, and heeded, Then should his glorious muse, her worth unmask, And he himself, himself should have exceeded; Then England, France, Spain, Greece and Italy, And all that th'Ocean from our shores divideth, Would over-run their bounds, and hither fly, To find the treasure, that our Ireland hideth, But best is, that we never do disclose it, Since known but of ourselves, we shall not lose it." - RIchard Nugent "Cynthia" (London, 1604)

Shakespeare and Ireland examines the complex relationship between the most celebrated icon of the British establishment and Irish literary and cultural traditions. Addressing Shakespearean representations of Ireland as well as Irish writers' responses to the dramatist, it ranges widely across theatrical performances, pedagogical practices, editorial undertakings and political developments. The writings of Joyce, Heaney and Yeats are considered, in addition to recent nationalist discourses. In so doing, the collection establishes the multiple 'Shakespeares' and competing 'Irelands' that inform the Irish imagination.

This book is a comprehensive study of the representation of Ireland in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Through a detailed analysis of a range of canonical and less familiar plays, such as The Misfortunes of Arthur, Captain Thomas Stukeley, Sir John Oldcastle and Dekker's The Honest Whore, this book reveals fascinating interconnections between Ireland as it was figured in Elizabethan and early Jacobean drama, and contemporaneous political and cultural anxieties about Ireland and Irish alterity. Exploring how the stage provided a fluid, though licensed, space where such anxieties were negotiated and confronted, this study questions views of the stage Irishman as a static colonialist stereotype. Instead, it demonstrates that dramatic representations of Ireland were dynamic, heterogeneous, and ideologically unstable. Opening up Renaissance drama to its multivalent Irish contexts, Staging Ireland will appeal to scholars and students of Shakespeare and early modern literature; drama and theatre as well as Irish studies.

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize’s 25th Anniversary Winner of Winners award What accounts for Shakespeare’s transformation from talented poet and playwright to one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this gripping account, James Shapiro sets out to answer this question, "succeed[ing] where others have fallen short." (Boston Globe) 1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen. James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare’s staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.

Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote his plays.

It is widely acknowledged that the hit franchise Game of Thrones is based on the Wars of the Roses, a bloody fifteenth-century civil war between feuding English families. In this book, Jeffrey R. Wilson shows how that connection was mediated by Shakespeare, and how a knowledge of the Shakespearean context enriches our understanding of the literary elements of Game of Thrones. On the one hand, Shakespeare influenced Game of Thrones indirectly because his history plays significantly shaped the way the Wars of the Roses are now remembered, including the modern histories and historical fictions George R.R. Martin drew upon. On the other, Game of Thrones also responds to Shakespeare’s first tetralogy directly by adapting several of its literary strategies (such as shifting perspectives, mixed genres, and metatheater) and tropes (including the stigmatized protagonist and the prince who was promised). Presenting new interviews with the Game of Thrones cast, and comparing contextual circumstances of composition—such as collaborative authorship and political currents—this book also lodges a series of provocations about writing and acting for the stage in the Elizabethan age and for the screen in the twenty-first century. An essential read for fans of the franchise, as well as students and academics looking at Shakespeare and Renaissance literature in the context of modern media.