William Shakespeare | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 28 pages of analysis & critique of William Shakespeare.
This section contains 7,611 words
(approx. 26 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by James C. Bryant

Bryant, James C. “Shakespeare's Use of Religious Controversy in King John.” In Tudor Drama and Religious Controversy, pp. 129-49. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1984.

In the following essay, Bryant maintains that in King John Shakespeare was able to achieve a measure of objectivity in his treatment of late fifteenth-century religious disputes.

Shakespeare was too much an artist and too much a businessman to make himself vulnerable to either the antitheatre officials in London or the anti-Romanist agents at Court. He wrote for a popular audience and was completely dependent upon the pleasure of that general public during the last decade of the sixteenth century. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Shakespeare would have used the stage to support his private notions about religion. At first he seemed more interested in reflecting public taste, not in prescribing it.

Like other successful dramatists of his period, Shakespeare held the mirror up...

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This section contains 7,611 words
(approx. 26 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by James C. Bryant
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Critical Essay by James C. Bryant from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.