Shakespeare in London

An evocative journey that places Shakespeares plays in a revealing urban context * The Guardian * [An] excellent book ... with clear prose, a valuable context-specific chronology, focussed further reading, and astute plot summaries ... The authors' extensive research is worn elegantly, as they gloss, surprise, and unlock. * English Journal * [An] excellent and imaginatively construed new book ... From its introduction imagining Shakespeare first walking into London to its epilogue showing how Henry VIII represented the Tower of London, Shakespeare in London manages to be both a useful guide and full of insight, a rare combination. * Around the Globe * [An] allusive, thought-provoking and approachable work that should be required reading for any undergraduate student of early-modern English literature ... Shakespeare in London offers useful insights into Shakespeares work and his working practices. But it is also a wonderful, wide-ranging introduction to the richness and complexity of late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean society. It would be instructive reading for anyone. * History Today * Crawforth, Dustagheer, and Young argue that the city in which Shakespeare lived and worked influenced the writing and performance of his plays. Each chapter of the book focuses on one play and one social or historical context for that play The authors provide useful supplementary materials: a chronology of Shakespeares life, traced against important contemporary events in London, and a list of suggested reading, arranged by subject Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers. -- K. K. Smith, University of South Carolina, Aiken * CHOICE * A well-written, user-friendly companion to Londons place in the plays and poems of Shakespeare as well as a good starting point for further research. It persuasively demonstrates that London is present in Shakespeares work in overt and indirect ways and offers a helpful overview of these references and, through them, an enriched reading of the plays. It will be a valuable purchase for university and research libraries keen to enhance their archive of key Shakespeare resources. * The London Journal * The authors are to be congratulated on exploring [their topic] in fresh and exciting ways ... Augmented by the usual apparatus of the Arden Shakespeare series, including a chronology, eight illustrations and suggested further reading, this study evokes a palpable, powerful sense of Shakespeares London and the numerous ways in which it permeated his playwriting. * Early Modern Literary Studies * Shakespeares comedies and tragedies seem to take place everywhere but Elizabethan London: Athens, Elsinore, Ephesus, Rome, Troy, Venice, Verona. This engaging book shows, contrary to received tradition, how deeply Shakespeares experience of life in London inspired the themes and scenes of plays purportedly set elsewhere * Lena Cowen Orlin, Professor of English, Georgetown University, USA *

Hannah Crawforth is Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at King's College London, UK. Sarah Dustagheer is Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at the University of Kent, UK. Jennifer Young is Teaching Fellow in English Literature (15901700) at the University of Leeds, UK.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Note on the Text A Chronology of Shakespeares Life and Early Modern London Introduction: Shakespeares London 1. Violence in Shakespeares London: Titus Andronicus (1594) and Tyburn 2. Politics in Shakespeares London: Richard II (1595) and Whitehall 3. Class in Shakespeares London: Romeo and Juliet (15956) and The Strand 4. Law in Shakespeares London: The Merchant of Venice (15968) and the Inns of Court 5. Religion in Shakespeares London: Hamlet (16001) and St Pauls 6. Medicine in Shakespeares London: King Lear (16056) and Bedlam 7. Economics in Shakespeares London: Timon of Athens (1607) and the Kings Bench Prison, Southwark 8. Experimentation in Shakespeares London: The Tempest (161011) and Lime Street Epilogue: Henry VIII (1613) and the Tower of London Works Cited Suggested Further Reading Index