For a century, scholars have debated whether "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written as an occasional play for a court wedding or whether it was conceived in the first instance as a play for the professional theatre. The question is fundamental to our understanding of Shakespeare's position within the Elizabethan world. "Shakespeare's Almanac" argues that there were close links between Shakespeare and his aristocratic patrons, far closer than have generally been recognized, and maintains that the play was commissioned for ...
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For a century, scholars have debated whether "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written as an occasional play for a court wedding or whether it was conceived in the first instance as a play for the professional theatre. The question is fundamental to our understanding of Shakespeare's position within the Elizabethan world. "Shakespeare's Almanac" argues that there were close links between Shakespeare and his aristocratic patrons, far closer than have generally been recognized, and maintains that the play was commissioned for the wedding of the granddaughter of the Lord Chamberlain, Henry Carey. In this study, Wiles marshalls new evidence by examining the conventions of the wedding masque and epithalamium, demonstrating that precise astrological allusions are a major feature of the genre. He shows that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" contains precise planetary references which accord perfectly with the date of the Carey/Berkeley wedding. Reading the text in this way leads to fresh insights: suddenly the apparently arbitrary time scheme of the play has an underlying logic.This new approach need not be reductive - aristocratic provenance does not prevent the play from exploring areas of conflict such as male versus female, nature versus culture, player versus patron - but it does add a new dimension to a text which already contains a myriad of meanings, and sheds light upon the significance of calendrical references in plays such as "Love's Labour's Lost", "Othello" and "The Tempest".
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Add this copy of Shakespeare's Almanac a Midsummer Night's Dream, to cart. $10.00, like new condition, Sold by Rain Dog Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bloomington, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Boydell & Brewer Inc.
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Fine in Very Good Dust Jacket. 8vo. 199 pp. We specialize in fine books in collectible condition. Orders are professionaly packaged and shipped promptly. W13.
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Add this copy of Shakespeare's Almanac: a Midsummer Night's Dream, to cart. $118.11, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Boydell & Brewer Inc.