From the Romans to the Normans on the English Renaissance Stage
Published on 10. September 2025
224 pages
978-1-58044-280-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book examines the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century engagement with a crucial part of Britain's past, the period between the withdrawal of the Roman legions and the Norman Conquest. This was a period that saw both Arthur and Alfred, as well as Hengist, Horsa, and Canute. The country was converted to Christianity and saw successive waves of invasions by Angles, Jutes, and Danes, which left both a mark on the language and a record in the physical landscape. By its end, the British Isles had been transformed beyond recognition, and yet a number of early modern plays suggest an underlying continuity, an essential English identity linked to the land and impervious to vicissitudes and change. This book considers the extent to which ideas about early modern English and British national, religious, and political identities were rooted in cultural constructions of the pre-Conquest past.
More details
Series
Edition
Digital original
Language
English
Place of publication
Michegan
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student
Edition type
Digital original
File size
1,70 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-58044-280-0 (9781580442800)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
11/2017
Medieval Institute Publications
€89.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Lisa Hopkins is Professor of English at Sheffield Hallam University. She is co-editor of Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association, and of the Arden Early Modern Drama Guides.
Content
Introduction
Part One: Legacies Bisson Conspectuities: Language and National Identity in Shakespeare's Roman Plays
Profit and Delight? Magic and the Dreams of a Nation
A Borrowed Blood for Brute: From Britain to England
Part Two: Ancestors and Others
Queens and the British History
Dido in Denmark: Danes and Saxons on the Early Modern English Stage
Valiant Welshwomen: When Britain Came Back
Athelstan, the Virgin King
Conclusion
Works Cited
Part One: Legacies Bisson Conspectuities: Language and National Identity in Shakespeare's Roman Plays
Profit and Delight? Magic and the Dreams of a Nation
A Borrowed Blood for Brute: From Britain to England
Part Two: Ancestors and Others
Queens and the British History
Dido in Denmark: Danes and Saxons on the Early Modern English Stage
Valiant Welshwomen: When Britain Came Back
Athelstan, the Virgin King
Conclusion
Works Cited
