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Shakespeare's Common Prayers
The Book of Common Prayer and the Elizabethan Age
Daniel Swift
304 pages
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210x140mm
978-0-19-983856-1
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Hardback
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22 November 2012
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- Highly original argument— the Book of Common Prayer has received little attention by Shakespeare scholars
- Offers scholarly engagement with recent developments in historical studies and literary criticism, as well as original archival research
Shakespeare's Common Prayers revolves around Shakespeare's great overlooked source: the Book of Common Prayer, first published in 1549, whose appearance established Protestantism as the compulsory belief of the day. Written in a simple vernacular and incorporating familiar Catholic rituals, the book laid out the proper performance of church rites and services. And yet it was also highly disputed and constantly in flux; as Daniel Swift shows, the prayer book's history is one of passionately contested revision and of manic sensitivity to a verb or a turn of phrase. In the book's
ambiguities and fierce contestations, Swift argues, William Shakespeare found the ready elements of drama: dispute over words and their practical consequences, hope for sanctification tempered by fear of simple meaninglessness, and the demand for improvised performance as a compensation for the failure of language to do what it appears to promise.
Swift offers a study of Shakespeare at work: of his imagination at play upon a set of literary materials from which he both borrowed and learned, of his manipulation of the explosive chemistry of word and action that comprised early modern liturgy. Swift argues that the Book of Common Prayer mediates between the secular and the devotional, producing a tension that helps make Shakespeare's plays so powerful and exceptional. Tracing the
prayer book's lines and motions through As You Like It, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Othello, and particularly Macbeth, Swift redirects scholarly attention to the religious heart of Shakespeare's work and time.Readership: Literary academics, Shakespeare scholars, students of 16th-century religion and Protestantism; sophisticated trade audience
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Daniel Swift, Senior Lecturer for English at the New College of the Humanities Daniel Swift is Senior Lecturer for English at the New College of the Humanities. His first book, Bomber County: The Poetry of a Lost Pilot's War was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize.
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"Compellingly original, beautifully written, judiciously argued, completely in command of both literary and historical sources, this is one of the best books on Shakespeare in recent years." - Jonathan Bate, The Spectator "Groundbreaking, historically informed, elegantly written, and invaluable for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of Shakespeare and religion in Elizabethan England." - James Shapiro, author of 1599 and Contested Will
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Prologue: A Revel with the Puritans
Chapter 1: The only book in the world
Part 1: The form of solemnization of Matrimony
Chapter 2: For better, for worse
Chapter 3: Till death us depart
Part 2: The order for the administration of the Lord's Supper, or holy Communion
Chapter 4: The Quick and the Dead
Chapter 5: A gap in our great feast
Part 3: The ministration of Baptism to be used in the Church
Chapter 6: Graceless Sacraments
Chapter 7: Above all Humane Power
Epilogue: Five or Six Words
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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