Aug 30, 2008

Shakespeare's World | The Literate Culture of Shakespeare's Audience

In August 1564—the sixth year of her reign, and incidentally the year of Shakespeare's birth— Queen Elizabeth set out on one of her stately progresses. It was a carefully orchestrated display of majesty, involving a large retinue of important personages. Her destination was Cambridge, and everyone at the university fell into a frenzy of preparation. There were posters and pageants to welcome her and a full program of speeches and plays to impress her with the gravity of the assembled scholars. The central feature of the entertainment was a series of disputations in the traditional...