Shakespeare's Festive World: Elizabethan Seasonal Entertainment and the Professional Stage

Description

Francois Laroque's new perspective on Shakespeare's relation to popular culture has quickly become a classic of scholarship. Available now in paperback, the book opens new possibilities for Shakespeare studies, revealing the connections between his plays and the folklore, customs, games, and celebrations of the Elizabethan festive tradition. This acclaimed study shows how Shakespeare mingled popular culture with aristocratic and royal forms of entertainment in ways that combined or clashed to produce new meaning.

'French scholarship teaches us ample European perspectives for Shakespeare's Renaissance art, and Francois Laroque has the rare ability to move gracefully between the ritual history of theatre and the fine detail of the plays.' Philip Brockbank '[Laroque] has performed a service to the scholarly community in restoring history to the New Historicism. The publication of Shakespere's Festive World is something to celebrate.' London Review of Books 'One of those rare book which teaches us to think like a person of a different culture...A lucid and imaginative book which combines an impressive breadth of knowledge with sensitivity to detail.' Cashiers Elisabethains