Shakespearian Constitutions

This critical study of Shakespeare's pervasive presence in English cultural life in the 18th and early 19th centuries examines how, during times of political stress, both "establishment" and "radical" culture strive to take possession of the National Poet. The author reveals how this process is at work in the political satires of Gillray, the Cruikshanks and other caricaturists. He also explores the performance and interpretation of Shakespeare's plays during this period and such phenomena as Garrick's Jubilee and Boydell's picture gallery. This work of interdisciplinary scholarship ranges through political and social history, literary criticism and theory, the theatre and the visual arts to present a picture of how Shakespeare was constituted by a later age and how that age was constituted by Shakespeare.