Shakespeare's Rise to Cultural Prominence
Politics, Print and Alteration, 1642–1700

Argues that the Exclusion Crisis of 1678–82 should be considered the watershed moment in Shakespeare's authorial afterlife.

Emma Depledge (Author)

9781108427104, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 July 2018

262 pages, 4 b/w illus. 10 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.57 kg

'The value of Depledge's splendid book is enhanced by its impressive scholarly apparatus, with twenty-two pages of works cited, plus many further references in the text and in the endnotes. Her thoroughly researched book will appeal to all Shakespeare scholars, not solely to those who specialize in the Restoration.' Richard M. Waugaman, Renaissance Quarterly

Shakespeare's rise to prominence was by no means inevitable. While he was popular in his lifetime, the number of new editions and revivals of his plays declined over the following decades. Emma Depledge uses the methodologies of book and theatre history to provide a re-assessment of the reputation and dissemination of Shakespeare during the Interregnum and Restoration. She demonstrates the crucial role of the Exclusion Crisis (1678–1682), a political crisis over the royal succession, as a foundational moment in Shakespeare's canonisation. The period saw a sudden surge of theatrical alterations and a significantly increased rate of new editions and stage revivals. In the wake of the Exclusion Crisis, Shakespeare's plays were made available on a scale not witnessed since the early seventeenth century, thus reversing what might otherwise have been a permanent disappearance of his drama from canonical familiarity and firmly establishing Shakespeare's work in the national cultural imagination.

Introduction
1. Shakespeare in the civil war and Interregnum years, 1642–59
2. Shakespeare on the early restoration stage and page, 1660–77
3. Shakespeare and the Exclusion Crisis, 1678–82: the decision to alter his plays
4. The politics of Shakespeare alterations of the Exclusion Crisis
5. Selling Shakespeare on the Exclusion Crisis stage and page
6. Shakespeare in the wake of the Exclusion Crisis, 1683–1700.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Shakespeare plays [DDS]