Shakespeare's Consuls, Cardinals, And Kings: The Real History Behind The Plays

Shakespeare was fascinated by power and its abuses, by the interplay of the personal and the political. His plays are a guide to how individuals react to the competing pressures of statecraft and personal ambition, fear and love. Indeed, our images of Richard III, Henry V, and Mark Antony are in large degree Shakespeare's. The book will not only consider these "cases" in the plays themselves, but also in the sources available to Shakespeare, the techniques Shakespeare used to transform history into drama and what modern historians have come to say in extending our knowledge. Each chapter includes a sidebar about notable film and stage productions and adaptations.