The Year of Lear : Shakespeare in 1606

Resource Information

The work The Year of Lear : Shakespeare in 1606 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS). This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

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Label

The Year of Lear : Shakespeare in 1606

Title remainder

Shakespeare in 1606

Statement of responsibility

James Shapiro

Title variation

• 1606 : William Shakespeare and the year of Lear
• William Shakespeare and the year of Lear

Creator

• trueShapiro, James, 1955-

Author

• trueShapiro, James, 1955-

Subject

• 1600-1699
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• trueDrama
• England
• trueEngland -- History -- 17th century
• English drama
• English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism
• trueGunpowder Plot, 1605
• History
• History
• trueLiterature and society
• Literature and society
• trueLiterature and society -- England -- History -- 17th century
• trueReligious persecution
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Tragedies
• Criticism and interpretation
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Genre

• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• trueHistory

Language

eng

Summary

• "Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and shaped the three great tragedies he wrote that year--King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn--King Lear--then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. It was a memorable year in England as well--and a grim one, in the aftermath of a terrorist plot conceived by a small group of Catholic gentry that had been uncovered at the last hour. The foiled Gunpowder Plot would have blown up the king and royal family along with the nation's political and religious leadership. The aborted plot renewed anti-Catholic sentiment and laid bare divisions in the kingdom. It was against this background that Shakespeare finished Lear, a play about a divided kingdom, then wrote a tragedy that turned on the murder of a Scottish king, Macbeth. He ended this astonishing year with a third masterpiece no less steeped in current events and concerns: Antony and Cleopatra. The Year of Lear sheds light on these three great tragedies by placing them in the context of their times, while also allowing us greater insight into how Shakespeare was personally touched by such events as a terrible outbreak of plague and growing religious divisions. For anyone interested in Shakespeare, this is an indispensable book"--
• "Pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and influenced three of his greatest tragedies written that year - King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra"--

Writing style

• trueDescriptive
• trueScholarly

Award

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, 2015

Assigning source

• Provided by publisher
• Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

822.3/3

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps

Index

index present

LC call number

PR2983

LC item number

.S467 2015

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography