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Palgrave Macmillan

Shakespeare’s Speculative Art

  • Book
  • © 2011

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Authors:
  1. Maurice A. Hunt
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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
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  2. Introduction

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 1-8

  3. Speculative Understanding and Ignorance in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 9-48

  4. Holding Up Drama as an “Ideal” Mirror in Hamlet and The Life of King Henry the Fifth

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 49-97

  5. Mirroring Queen Elizabeth in John Lyly’s Comedies

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 99-125

  6. Mirroring Queen Elizabeth in Love’s Labor’s Lost

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 127-150

  7. A Speculative Political Allegory in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 151-179

  8. Mirroring the Earl of Southampton in All’s Well That Ends Well

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 181-204

  9. Conclusion

    • Maurice A. Hunt
    Pages 205-210

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 211-263
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Keywords

About this book

This is the first book-length analysis of Shakespeare s depiction of specula (mirrors) to reveal the literal and allegorical functions of mirrors in the playwright s art and thought. Adding a new dimension to the plays Troilus and Cressida, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Henry the Fifth, Love s Labor s Lost, A Midsummer Night s Dream, and All s Well That Ends Well, Maurice A. Hunt also references mirrors in a wide range of external sources, from the Bible to demonic practices. Looking at the concept of speculation through its multiple meanings - cognitive, philosophical, hypothetical, and provisional - this original reading suggests Shakespeare as a craftsman so prescient and careful in his art that he was able to criticize the queen and a former patron with such impunity that he could still live as a gentleman.

About the author

MAURICE A. HUNT is a Professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, USA.

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