Shakespeare and Authority

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. ‘Dressed in a Little Brief Authority’: Authority Before, During, and After Shakespeare’s Plays

   • Katie Halsey, Angus Vine

   Pages 1-27

3. Defining and Redefining Authority

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

      PDF

   2. Shakespeare’s Authorities

      • Colin Burrow

      Pages 31-53

   3. Inside the Elephant’s Graveyard: Revising Geoffrey Bullough’s Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare

      • John Drakakis

      Pages 55-78

   4. Author and Authority in the OED: Nashe v. Shakespeare

      • Giles Goodland

      Pages 79-111

   5. ‘The King’s English’ ‘Our English’?: Shakespeare and Linguistic Ownership

      • Margaret Tudeau-Clayton

      Pages 113-133

   6. Foundations of Sovereign Authority: The Example of Shakespearean Political Drama

      • Eric Heinze

      Pages 135-154

4. Shakespearean Authority

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

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   2. ‘A Trim Reckoning’: Accountability and Authority in 1 and 2 Henry IV

      • Angus Vine

      Pages 157-178

   3. The King’s Ring: A Matter of Trust

      • Joseph Sterrett

      Pages 179-194

   4. ‘Constant in any Undertaking’: Writing the Lipsian State in Measure for Measure

      • Daniel Cadman

      Pages 195-212

   5. Duty and Authority: Malvolio, Stewardship and Montague’s Household Book

      • Eleanor Lowe

      Pages 213-229

   6. Poetic Authority in Julius Caesar: The Triumph of the Poet-Playwright-Actor

      • Laetitia Sansonetti

      Pages 231-246

5. Shakespeare as Authority

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 247-247

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   2. Authority of the Actor in the Eighteenth Century

      • James Harriman-Smith

      Pages 249-264

   3. Shakespeare, Rule-Breaking and Artistic Genius: The Case of Sir John Soane

      • Andrew Rudd

      Pages 265-280

   4. Whose Gothic Bard? Charles Robert Maturin and Contestations of Shakespearean Authority in British/Irish Romantic Culture

      • Benedicte Seynhaeve, Raphaël Ingelbien

      Pages 281-300

   5. Authority, Instrumental Reason and the Fault Lines of Modern Civilization in Peter Brook’s Cinematic Rendering of Shakespeare’s King Lear

      • Fred Ribkoff, Paul Tyndall

      Pages 301-316

   6. Will Power: Visualising Shakespeare’s Authority in Contemporary Culture

      • Jane Partner

      Pages 317-335

This book examines conceptions of authority for and in Shakespeare, and the construction of Shakespeare as literary and cultural authority. The first section, Defining and Redefining Authority, begins by re-defining the concept of Shakespeare’s sources, suggesting that ‘authorities’ and ‘resources’ are more appropriate terms. Building on this conceptual framework, the remainder of this section explores linguistic and discursive authority more broadly. The second section, Shakespearean Authority, considers the construction, performance and questioning of authority in Shakespeare’s plays. Essays here range from examinations of monarchical authority to discussions of household authority, literary authority and linguistic ownership. The final part, Shakespeare as Authority, then traces the increasing establishment of Shakespeare as an authority from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century in a series of essays that explore Shakespearean authority for editors, actors, critics, authors, readers and audiences. The volume concludes with two essays that reassess Shakespeare as an authority for visual culture – in the cinema and in contemporary art.

• Shakespeare
• Cultural authority
• Linguistic authority
• History of English language
• Law and literature
• Shakespeare's plays
• Theatre
• British and Irish Literature

“Halsey and Vine remind readers of as much quite early on in Shakespeare and Authority … this book’s altogether comprehensive range, especially in relation to its varying angles of approach and expectation(s).” (David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews, davidmarxbookreviews.wordpress.com, April 23, 2019)

“Shakespeare and Authority presents thought-provoking individual chapters and, as such, is a valuable contribution to the flourishing field of Shakespeare studies. More specifically aimed at Shakespeare scholars and specialists of the early modern period, it will undoubtedly enlarge theirvision of Shakespeare as poet and playwright now turned into one of the greatest artistic influences of our century.” (Sophie Chiari, cercles.com, June, 2018) “Shakespeare and Authority is a wide-ranging and impressively researched volume which returns attention to a burning issue in early modern and modern critical debate. Interrogating received ideas on authorship, textual expectation and reception, this collection urges readers to return to a host of celebrated works with new eyes and repays re-reading.” (Andrew Hiscock, Professor of English Literature, Bangor University, UK)

“Shakespeare and Authority is an exceptionally fine collection, which includes contributions both from well-established figures in the field and from up-and-coming scholars who are producing exciting new work. Its range is comprehensive and it offers a thoughtful, scholarly, and original engagement with a crucial topic in early modern literary and cultural studies. It is a must-read volume for students and scholars alike.” (Andrew Murphy, Professor of English, University of St Andrews, UK)

“This fascinating multifaceted collection ventures to approach the subject of authority as both a preoccupation within Shakespeare’s canon as well as the key determinant of the long trajectory of his textual, dramatic, and critical reception. Together the essays give us a generous chronological and generic sweep, yet each individual essay has its own tight focus on some aspect of the complex and mutating interrelation of authority and authorship.” (Margreta de Grazia, Emerita Sheli Z. and Burton Z. Rosenberg Professor of the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, USA)

• Division of Literature and Languages, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom

  Katie Halsey, Angus Vine

Katie Halsey is Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature at the University of Stirling, UK. Previous publications include Jane Austen and her Readers, 1786-1945, The History of Reading (with Shafquat Towheed and Rosalind Crone) and The History of Reading vol. 2: Evidence from the British Isles, 1750-1950 (with Bob Owens).

Angus Vine is Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at the University of Stirling, UK. He is the author of In Defiance of Time: Antiquarian Writing in Early Modern England;  Miscellaneous Order: Manuscript Culture and the Organization of Knowledge in Early Modern England (forthcoming) and, with Abigail Shinn, The Copious Text.

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