Dermot Cavanagh

Book review: The Shakespeare Circle: An Alternative BiographyEdmondsonPaulWellsStanley (eds), The Shakespeare Circle: An Alternative Biography (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015), ix+358 pp., ISBN 9781107699090, £18.99 (pbk).

Bard’s iconic status by sometimes reducing him to a downtrodden derelict, sexual deviant or a mere venal hack. Where the Time Machine was not employed to diminish Shakespeare himself, it could be used to challenge the High-Culture authority with which his name was identified by academics who ‘stole him from the common people’. To wit: Blackadder returning to Elizabethan England and pummelling Shakespeare as vengeance for ‘every boy and girl for the next four hundred years . . . wearing stupid tights in school plays’ (248). In keeping with postmodern insistence on the death of the author, these time-travel fantasies invariably reduced Shakespeare’s artistic achievement to a recording of ‘the collective thoughts and conflicts of his culture’ (vii) – and ours. Ultimately, however, Franssen identifies in these narratives a central paradox as they simultaneously scorned Shakespeare and revered him. This comprehensive examination of how Shakespeare has been portrayed since his death 400 years ago is remarkable for the range of materials surveyed – across time, genres and languages – as well as depth of analysis. The book’s thematic organization based on the assortment of facts, factoids and myths surrounding Shakespeare as a literary character enables Franssen to present the material systematically and persuasively. His incorporation of previous scholarship is likewise judicious. Shakespeare’s Literary Lives thus succeeds both in deconstructing the icon on which so much self-projection has occurred and examining the cultural significance of Shakespearean fictionalizations. If ever there were a doubt, this accomplished study confirms Shakespeare’s continuing relevance from his own day to ours.

Political Theology in George Buchanan’s Baptistes

‘The tragedies of Buchanan,’ noted Philip Sidney in his Apology for Poetry (c. 1579; printed 1595) ‘do justly bring forth a divine admiration’ (Sidney, 2002, 113). As a glance at the multitude of editions in which Buchanan’s plays and poetry appeared both during and long after his lifetime confirms, Sidney’s regard was normative rather than exceptional (see McFarlane, 1981, 490–518; Durkan, 1994). It is my argument that the interest Buchanan’s drama sustained within the period deserves reconsideration. In particular, this essay will emphasise the prescience of his scriptural tragedy on the last days of John the Baptist, Baptistes (c. 1539–43; printed 1577). This neglected work represents a key contribution to early modern tragic theatre and its political concerns anticipate crucial elements of subsequent achievements in this genre.