The subject of Shakespeare's own religion has been little discussed until recently. The prevailing impression has been that almost nothing is known of the poet's life, and consequently that no light can be shed on the plays by consideration of his beliefs. However, it is now increasingly accepted, on the basis of sound historical research, that Shakespeare had a strongly Catholic religious background and may well himself have been a recusant.
In The Catholicism of Shakespeare's Plays, Fr. Peter Milward examines the traces of Shakespeare's Catholic influences within the plays themselves, and argues convincingly that they are best understood as the works of a playwright whose outlook was formed by the Catholic faith to which he remained attached, and who was seriously concerned by the contemporary persecution of the Catholic Church in England. He draws attention to many Catholic allusions in the plays not the subject of previous comment.
The book concludes with a presentation of the historical evidence for Shakespeare's own Catholicism and recusancy, including an account of the 1999 "Lancastrian Shakespeare" Conference, at which new material was presented linking the poet with Catholic households in Lancashire, and possibly even with the Jesuit martyr St. Edmund Campion.
The Catholicism of Shakespeare’s Plays, by Peter Milward SJ.
113 pages, paperback. ISBN 1 901157 10 5.
£9.95 ; $16.95 in the U.S.A.
Published by The Saint Austin Press.
Click here to find out how to order from your local supplier.
Saint Austin Literature & Ideas Series
Other titles:
The Simplicity of the West - Peter Milward SJ
Vertical Man - J. C. Whitehouse
Shakespeare's Apocalypse - Peter Milward SJ
Series Editor: F. D. McDermott, MA