Early Modern Drama and the Bible

Early modern drama is steeped in biblical language, imagery and stories. This collection of essays examines the extensive and pervasive presence of scripture on the early modern stage and considers a range of plays by writers such as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Middleton, Webster, Massinger and Heywood. The introduction situates the religious, political and ideological contexts within which the relationship between stage and book was negotiated. The individual essays then explore a variety...
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Early modern drama is steeped in biblical language, imagery and stories. This collection of essays examines the extensive and pervasive presence of scripture on the early modern stage and considers a range of plays by writers such as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Middleton, Webster, Massinger and Heywood. The introduction situates the religious, political and ideological contexts within which the relationship between stage and book was negotiated. The individual essays then explore a variety of dramatic encounters with scripture, ranging from material and verbal presences, iconoclasm, political theology, the Bible and the law, the domestic, the religious and political controversy. In this way, the capacious and widespread dramatic engagement with the early modern Bible is reconsidered. These essays offer fresh and exciting readings of early modern drama by resituating the theatre as a site of public and communal engagement with, and interrogation of, scripture.