Shakespeare's Monarchies

Download or read book Shakespeare's Monarchies written by Constance Jordan and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of this text explores how Shakespeare, through his romances, contributed to the cultural debates over the nature of monarchy in Jacobean England. Stressing the differences between absolutist and constitutionalist principles of rule, Jordan demonstrates Shakespeare's investment in the idea that a head of state should be responsive to law and not be governed by his own unbridled will. Conflicts within royal courts which occur in the romances show wives, daughters and servants resisting tyrannical husbands, fathers, masters and monarchs by relying on the authority of conscience.