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Clare Asquith, author of "Shadowplay", on EWTN's The World Over Live - 8pm Friday 9/16
EWTN ^ | September 16, 2005

Posted on 09/16/2005 10:18:17 AM PDT by NYer

A revelatory new look at how Shakespeare secretly addressed the most profound political issues of his day, and how his plays embody a hidden history of England.

In 16th century England many loyal subjects to the crown were asked to make a terrible choice: to follow their monarch or their God. The era was one of unprecedented authoritarianism: England, it seemed, had become a police state, fearful of threats from abroad and plotters at home. This age of terror was also the era of the greatest creative genius the world has ever known: William Shakespeare. How, then, could such a remarkable man born into such violently volatile times apparently make no comment about the state of England in his work?

He did. But it was hidden. Revealing Shakespeare's sophisticated version of a forgotten code developed by 16th-century dissidents, Clare Asquith shows how he was both a genius for all time and utterly a creature of his own era: a writer who was supported by dissident Catholic aristocrats, who agonized about the fate of England's spiritual and political life and who used the stage to attack and expose a regime which he believed had seized illegal control of the country he loved.

Shakespeare's plays offer an acute insight into the politics and personalities of his era. And Clare Asquith's decoding of them offers answers to several mysteries surrounding Shakespeare's own life, including most notably why he stopped writing while still at the height of his powers. An utterly compelling combination of literary detection and political revelation, Shadowplay is the definitive expose of how Shakespeare lived through and understood the agonies of his time, and what he had to say about them.


TOPICS: Activism; Catholic; Current Events; Ecumenism; General Discusssion; History; Mainline Protestant; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: asquith; england; shadowplay; shakespeare

1 posted on 09/16/2005 10:18:21 AM PDT by NYer
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To: american colleen; Lady In Blue; Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; ...


2 posted on 09/16/2005 10:20:51 AM PDT by NYer
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To: NYer
I am naturally suspicious of "forgotten codes" . . . they are so often just an inkblot test for the writer's own predilections . . .

Guess I'll have to read it and see.

3 posted on 09/16/2005 10:54:12 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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To: AnAmericanMother

From what I've read of this book, Lady Asquith overreaches a bit. But I do think the case for Shakespeare's recusant sympathies is generally pretty solid. Religion is generally ignored in scholarship today, and academics have only recently begun to take it seriously again as a historical influence.


4 posted on 09/16/2005 11:55:55 AM PDT by Dumb_Ox (Be not Afraid. "Perfect love drives out fear.")
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To: NYer
Aw, man! I saw the title ("Shadowplay"), and I thought this was a book about Joy Division.
5 posted on 09/16/2005 12:18:05 PM PDT by bourbon (It's the target that decides whether terror wins.)
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To: NYer

I think I watched this PBS (gasp!) show on CD and some of the evidence was presented that would make one suspect he might be Catholic. The third and fourth hour dragged a bit as there was some repetition but I thought it was interesting.

http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/


6 posted on 09/16/2005 2:43:34 PM PDT by siunevada
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To: Dumb_Ox; AnAmericanMother

Can't recall who, but someone did an excellent study on "The Phoenix and the Turtle" as a telling of the martyrdom of "St. Anne Line".


7 posted on 09/16/2005 4:46:04 PM PDT by Maeve
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