Shakespeare and the Play Scripts of Private Prayer

Explores drama and private prayer from 1580 to 1640, when prayer was considered a dynamic, creative practice. It analyses moments in which private prayer was staged in Shakespeare's history plays to argue that private prayers are play scripts and to recognise how this understanding affects how prayers in the plays were played and received.

List of contents

• 1: Introduction: Creativity in Private Prayers


• 2: Techniques to Compose Private Prayers


• 3: Scripting a Role for the Speaker of Private Prayer: 2 and 3 Henry VI


• 4: Discerning a Response to Private Prayer: Richard III and Henry V


• 5: The Special Case of Royal Private Prayer: Henry VIII and Richard II


• 6: Afterword: Staging Private Prayer


• Appendix A. Sample contents pages of printed private prayer books


• Appendix B. Sample prayers on childbirth


• Appendix C. Sample prayers on work

About the author

Ceri Sullivan is a Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University, and the author of five books about the literary features that structure early modern texts about religion, trade, bureaucracy, and rhetoric. She was educated at the University of Oxford, and was formerly a banking systems analyst in the City of London and an NGO worker in sub-Saharan Africa.

Summary

Explores drama and private prayer from 1580 to 1640, when prayer was considered a dynamic, creative practice. It analyses moments in which private prayer was staged in Shakespeare's history plays to argue that private prayers are play scripts and to recognise how this understanding affects how prayers in the plays were played and received.

Product details

• Authors: Ceri Sullivan, Ceri (Professor of English Sullivan, Sullivan Ceri
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 03.09.2020
• EAN: 9780198857310
• ISBN: 978-0-19-885731-0
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, LITERARY CRITICISM / Shakespeare, DRAMA / Shakespeare, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 16th Century, History of Religion, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Relating to Shakespeare / Shakespearean