Shakespeare's restless world

Format:

Book

Title:

Shakespeare's restless world

Author:

MacGregor, Neil, 1946- author.

ISBN:

9780670026340

Publication:

New York, New York : Viking, [2013]

Physical Description:

xvi, 320 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

General Note:

"The British Museum."

"BBC Radio 4."

Contents:

Introduction: Inside the Wooden O -- England goes global -- Communion and conscience -- Snacking through Shakespeare -- Life without Elizabeth -- Swordplay and swagger -- Europe : triumphs of the past -- Ireland : failures in the present -- City life, urban strife -- New science, old magic -- Toil and trouble -- Treason and plots -- Sex and the city -- From London to Marrakesh -- Disguise and deception -- The flag that failed -- A time of change, a change of time -- Plague and the playhouse -- London becomes Rome -- The theatres of cruelty -- Shakespeare goes global.

Summary:

In this brilliant work of historical reconstruction Neil MacGregor and his team at the British Museum, working together in a landmark collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC, bring us twenty objects that capture the essence of Shakespeare's universe and the Tudor era of Elizabeth I.

Personal Subject:

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Knowledge and learning.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Criticism and interpretation.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Miscellanea.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. (OCoLC)fst00029048

Subject(s):

Material culture.

Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603.

England -- Social conditions -- 16th century.

England -- Social conditions -- 17th century.

Geographic Term:

Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603.

England -- Social conditions -- 16th century.

England -- Social conditions -- 17th century.

England.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Trivia and miscellanea.

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Stayton Public Library	822.33 MACGREGOR	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	822.33 MacGregor 2013	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Silver Falls Library	822.33 MACGREGOR	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The New York Times bestselling author of A History of the World in 100 Objects brings the world of Shakespeare and the Tudor era of Elizabeth I into focus

We feel we know Shakespeare's characters. Think of Hamlet, trapped in indecision, or Macbeth's merciless and ultimately self-destructive ambition, or the Machiavellian rise and short reign of Richard III. They are so vital, so alive and real that we can see aspects of ourselves in them. But their world was at once familiar and nothing like our own.

In this brilliant work of historical reconstruction Neil MacGregor and his team at the British Museum, working together in a landmark collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC, bring us twenty objects that capture the essence of Shakespeare's universe. A perfect complement to A History of the World in 100 Objects , MacGregor's landmark New York Times bestseller, Shakespeare's Restless World highlights a turning point in human history.

This magnificent book, illustrated throughout with more than one hundred vibrant color photographs, invites you to travel back in history and to touch, smell, and feel what life was like at that pivotal moment, when humankind leaped into the modern age. This was an exhilarating time when discoveries in science and technology altered the parameters of the known world. Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation map allows us to imagine the age of exploration from the point of view of one of its most ambitious navigators. A bishop's cup captures the most sacred and divisive act in Christendom.

With A History of the World in 100 Objects , MacGregor pioneered a new way of telling history through artifacts. Now he trains his eye closer to home, on a subject that has mesmerized him since childhood, and lets us see Shakespeare and his world in a whole new light.

Author Notes

Robert Neil MacGregor, OM, FSA (born on June 16, 1946, in Glasgow, Scotland) is an art historian and museum director. He was the Editor of the Burlington Magazine from 1981 to 1987, the Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1987 to 2002, and was appointed Director of the British Museum in 2002. He has presented three television series on art and the radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects, which aired in 2010.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

What did Elizabethan theatergoers eat while watching Hamlet? British Museum Director MacGregor (A History of the World in 100 Objects, 2011, etc.) answers that question and many others as he examines 20 objects, now in museums and libraries, that illuminate daily life in Shakespearean England. As for theater snacks, researchers combing through debris buried under the Globe discovered that nuts, dried fruit and various kinds of shellfish were popular. Oysters were cheap, sold by girls known as "oyster-wenches" and pried from their shells with daggers, which every man carried. A two-pronged iron fork, though, was a surprising discovery; MacGregor speculates that it belonged to a wealthy audience member who imported the dining utensil from Italy at a time when most English ate with their fingers. A felted woolen cap gives the author a chance to explain how clothing choices distinguished among workers and signaled class. An obsidian mirror belonging to John Dee, practitioner of the occult arts, inspires a chapter on "the proximity and the influence of a world of spirits" that viewers of The Tempest or A Midsummer Night's Dream took for granted. Dee, it turns out, was a trusted adviser of Queen Elizabeth. A model of a bewitched ship, from the collections of the National Museum of Scotland, proves that for many in Shakespeare's audience, "witchcraft was part of the fabric of daily life." Viewers likely were aware, too, of the difference between the mischief perpetrated by English witches and the "taste for high politics" enjoyed by Scottish witches--the three, for example, whose chanting opens Macbeth. Civic life was indeed tense throughout Elizabeth's reign and even after her death. The country was roiled by threats of treason and assassination, beset by religious conflict and repeatedly infected by plague. Beautifully illustrated, MacGregor's history offers a vibrant portrait of Shakespeare's dramatic, perilous and exhilarating world.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Shakespeare may never have owned a Cristallo-glass goblet made by the craftsmen of Venice. Yet by contemplating such a seventeenth-century object, MacGregor enters the world the Bard creates in Othello and The Merchant of Venice. Just as he did in A History of the World in 100 Objects (2010), MacGregor repeatedly converts fascinating objects into talismans transporting readers across time and geography. In this volume, 20 well-chosen artifacts open perspectives on both Shakespeare's literary art and his historical circumstances. Readers examine, for instance, a seventeenth-century dagger and suddenly find themselves beside the doomed Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and among the reckless roughnecks roaming the streets of Elizabethan London. Readers likewise scrutinize a brass-handled iron fork recovered from the Rose theater, an implement amplifying Falstaff's cry in The Merry Wives of Windsor for skies that rain potatoes and prompting reflections on the oysters that groundlings ate at Elizabethan plays. Readers even peer at a reliquary containing the eye of Catholic martyr Edward Oldcorne, a grim reminder of the cruel blinding Gloucester suffers in Lear and of the brutal real-world executions carried out scant yards from the Globe Theater. Visually splendid, intellectually stimulating, a must-buy for any library with patrons who still care about the Swan of Avon.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2010 Booklist

Introduction: Inside the Wooden O	p. vii
Chapter 1 England Goes Global	p. 2
Chapter 2 Communion and Conscience	p. 18
Chapter 3 Snacking Through Shakespeare	p. 32
Chapter 4 Life Without Elizabeth	p. 44
Chapter 5 Swordplay and Swagger	p. 61
Chapter 6 Europe: Triumphs of the Past	p. 74
Chapter 7 Ireland: Failures in the Present	p. 89
Chapter 8 City Life, Urban Strife	p. 105
Chapter 9 New Science, Old Magic	p. 116
Chapter 10 Toil and Trouble	p. 132
Chapter 11 Treason and Plots	p. 147
Chapter 12 Sex and the City	p. 160
Chapter 13 From London to Marrakesh	p. 174
Chapter 14 Disguise and Deception	p. 190
Chapter 15 The Flag That Failed	p. 202
Chapter 16 A Time of Change, a Change of Time	p. 215
Chapter 17 Plague and the Playhouse	p. 228
Chapter 18 London Becomes Rome	p. 242
Chapter 19 The Theatres of Cruelty	p. 258
Chapter 20 Shakespeare Goes Global	p. 272
List of Lead Objects	p. 287
Bibliography	p. 290
References	p. 295
Picture Credits	p. 303
Acknowledgements	p. 310
Index	p. 311

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Table of Contents