Promotional Information

An innovative book looking at how London influenced Shakespeare's drama and how it is so often the true city at the heart of his plays, be it Venice, Rome or even Prospero's Island.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Note on the Text A Chronology of Shakespeare’s Life and Early Modern London Introduction: Shakespeare’s London 1. Violence in Shakespeare’s London: Titus Andronicus (1594) and Tyburn 2. Politics in Shakespeare’s London: Richard II (1595) and Whitehall 3. Class in Shakespeare’s London: Romeo and Juliet (1595–6) and The Strand 4. Law in Shakespeare’s London: The Merchant of Venice (1596–8) and the Inns of Court 5. Religion in Shakespeare’s London: Hamlet (1600–1) and St Paul’s 6. Medicine in Shakespeare’s London: King Lear (1605–6) and Bedlam 7. Economics in Shakespeare’s London: Timon of Athens (1607) and the King’s Bench Prison, Southwark 8. Experimentation in Shakespeare’s London: The Tempest (1610–11) and Lime Street Epilogue: Henry VIII (1613) and the Tower of London Works Cited Suggested Further Reading Index

About the Author

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 (1590–1700) at the University of Leeds, UK.

Reviews

An evocative journey that places Shakespeare’s 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 Shakespeare’s 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 Shakespeare’s 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.
*CHOICE*

A well-written, user-friendly companion to London’s 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 Shakespeare’s 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 Shakespeare’s London and the numerous ways in which it permeated his playwriting.
*Early Modern Literary Studies*

Shakespeare’s 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 Shakespeare’s experience of life in London inspired the themes and scenes of plays purportedly set elsewhere
*Lena Cowen Orlin, Professor of English, Georgetown University, USA*