The Making of the National Poet : Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660-1769: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660-1769The first full-length study since the 1920s of the Restoration and eighteenth-century's revisions and revaluations of Shakespeare, and the first to consider the period's much-reviled stage adaptions in the context of the profound cultural changes of their times. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Dobson examines how and why Shakespeare was retrospectively claimed as both a respectable Enlightenment author and a crucial and contested symbol of British national identity. The book provides thorough analysis, both engaging and informative, the definitive account of the theatre's role in establishing Shakespeare as Britain's National Poet. - ;The century between the Restoration and David Garrick's Stratford Jubilee saw William Shakespeare's promotion from the status of archaic, rustic playwright to that of England's timeless Bard, and with it the complete transformation of the ways in which his plays were staged, published, and read. But why Shakespeare, and what different interests did this process serve? The Making of the National Poet is the first full-length study since the 1920s of the Restoration and eighteenth century's revisions and revaluations of Shakespeare, and the first to consider the period's much-reviled stage adaptations in the context of the profound cultural changes in which they participate. Drawing on a wide range of evidence - including engravings, prompt-books, diaries, statuary, and previously unpublished poems (among them traces of the hitherto mysterious Shakespeare Ladies' Club) - it examines how and why Shakespeare was retrospectively claimed as both a respectable Enlightenment author and a crucial and contested symbol of British national identity. It shows in particular how the deification of Shakespeare co-existed with, and even demanded, the drastic and sometimes bizarre rewriting of his plays for which the period is notorious. The book provides thorough analysis, both engaging and informative, the definitive account of the theatre's role in establishing Shakespeare as Britain's National Poet. - |
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The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship ... Michael Dobson No preview available - 1994 |
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Abbey acting actor adaptation adaptors alterations Appropriation of Shakespeare audience Bard Bardolatry Britain British canonization celebrated character Charles Christopher Spencer Cibber claim comedy comic contemporary Cressida Critical culture Cymbeline Davenant Davenant's David Garrick dramatic Drury Lane Dryden Duke Durfey Durfey's edition eighteenth century Enchanted Island entertainment epilogue Essay Exclusion Crisis Falstaff father Fletcher Florizel and Perdita George Gildon Granville Hamlet Harlequin Henry Hippolito History honour ibid John John Dryden Johnson Jubilee Juliet Julius Caesar King Lear Ladies literary London Stage monument Nature Otway Otway's Oxford Patriot performed Petruchio play's playwright plot poem political Pope preface prologue Prospero repertory Restoration revival rewriting Richard role royal scene Scheemakers Shake Shakespeare Ladies Shakespeare London Shakespeare's plays she-tragedy Shrew speare speare's statue Stratford Tate's Tempest theatre theatrical Theophilus Cibber Thomas tion tragedy Troilus Troilus and Cressida vols Westminster Abbey William Davenant William Shakespeare Winter's Tale writers