{"id":8051,"date":"2016-04-19T07:30:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T14:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/?p=8051"},"modified":"2016-03-30T08:53:37","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T15:53:37","slug":"celebrating-shakespeare-why-religion-matters-shakespeare-and-the-english-reformation-by-maddy-mccombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/celebrating-shakespeare-why-religion-matters-shakespeare-and-the-english-reformation-by-maddy-mccombs\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Shakespeare: Why Religion Matters: Shakespeare and the English Reformation By Maddy McCombs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/BIGCALLOUT_Shakespeare.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-7999\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/BIGCALLOUT_Shakespeare.jpg\" alt=\"BIGCALLOUT_Shakespeare\" width=\"461\" height=\"215\" \/><\/a><em>In honor of William Shakespeare we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of his death on April 23, 2016. What better way to do this, than by highlighting the writing done by first-year students in Associate Professor of English John Wesley\u2019s first-year seminar, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare? This first-year seminar in scholarly inquiry studies four remarkable plays Shakespeare wrote or saw into production in 1599, the same year he opened the Globe Theatre. In the first half of the course, students were introduced to the myriad ways in which Shakespeare\u2019s 1599 plays are shaped by and give shape to the political and cultural intrigues of that year. In the second half of the course, students turned to a play (and year) of their own choosing, the historicist analysis of which is the basis of an independent research project. As part of this project, students were asked to prepare a blog post that reflected on aspects of Shakespeare&#8217;s life, a specific work, or a resource or organization associated with Shakespeare, or to provide a personal interpretation of a play. During the month of April, we\u2019ll feature the posts from students that celebrate all things Shakespeare!<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Congratulations to our wonderful first-year writers. For additional online resources about Shakespeare, check out these sites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>British Library: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/\">http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Folger Shakespeare Library: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.folger.edu\/\">http:\/\/www.folger.edu\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Globe Theatre: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shakespearesglobe.com\">http:\/\/www.shakespearesglobe.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Internet Shakespeare Editions: <a href=\"http:\/\/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca\">http:\/\/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Shakespeare 400:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shakespeare400.org\/\">http:\/\/www.shakespeare400.org\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Why Religion Matters: Shakespeare and the English Reformation<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>By Maddy McCombs<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8054\" style=\"width: 368px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/Shakespeare_Reformation1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8054\" class=\" wp-image-8054\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/Shakespeare_Reformation1.jpg\" alt=\"Figure 1: A Church destroyed during the Reformation\" width=\"358\" height=\"238\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8054\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 1: A Church destroyed during the Reformation<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Religion, especially Christianity, is always apparent in Shakespeare\u2019s works. From comedies like <em>As You Like It, <\/em>to infamous tragedies such as <em>Hamlet, <\/em>threads of the religious landscape of 16<sup>th<\/sup> century England can be found in the background of the plays that make him famous.<\/p>\n<p>It is still quite a mystery as to what religion William Shakespeare actually identified with, as Protestants and Catholics alike continually find proof that he was one of them. Shakespeare was raised in a largely Protestant England: Queen Elizabeth I determined Protestantism to be the main religion of the nation shortly before the Bard\u2019s birth with the Religious Settlement of 1559 (Trueman). However, Catholicism was always looming over England. After Henry VII first introduced the Protestant faith in England, Queen Mary fiercely reestablished Catholicism as the law of the land before quickly being switched again with Elizabeth I\u2019s reign (Pettegree). When things finally settled again, Catholic churches and its paraphernalia were destroyed or covered in order to remove the corruption associated with the Catholic Church (Shapiro).<\/p>\n<p>There is some evidence that Shakespeare\u2019s father was Catholic because he was cited twice for not attending Protestant church services and there are reports of a will that allegedly served as a profession of his Catholic faith. Also, a Catholic relative on his mother\u2019s side was executed for conspiracy to assassinate Queen Elizabeth (Miola).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8055\" style=\"width: 232px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/shakespeare_Reformation2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8055\" class=\" wp-image-8055\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/shakespeare_Reformation2.jpg\" alt=\"Figure 2: The Ditchley Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I\" width=\"222\" height=\"353\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8055\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 2: The Ditchley Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Despite this information, Shakespeare\u2019s own beliefs are not evident. Though the feud between the Protestant and Catholic faiths for ownership over this influential figure continues today, there is no proof that swings him either way. However, the struggles and questions raised throughout the reformation are very apparent through his plays.<\/p>\n<p>Many aspects of the Reformation are extremely visible in Shakespeare\u2019s work, <em>Julius Caesar <\/em>being a very potent example of current events mingling with recounts of the past. Just as Rome in <em>Julius Caesar<\/em> was at the crossroads between being a republic and an empire, 16<sup>th<\/sup> century England was at the crossroads between Catholicism and Protestantism. Also in <em>Julius Caesar, <\/em>the opening scene in which they celebrate Caesar is actually a holiday, the Feast of Lupercalia. As in Shakespeare\u2019s life, there is confusion as to what should be celebrated: a national holiday or a religious one? Protestant England was moving away from religious holidays in favor of nationalistic ones, such as Accession Day celebrating Elizabeth\u2019s rise to the throne (Shapiro). Elements of \u201cwhite-washing\u201d of Catholic churches are seen in <em>Julius Caesar <\/em>when two tribunes of Rome remove the decorations lining the streets for Caesar\u2019s triumphant return from exiling Pompey, another Roman leader of the time.<\/p>\n<p>Though <em>Julius Caesar <\/em>provides some of the best allusions to the conflict of the Reformation, many other plays do so as well. The ghost of Hamlet\u2019s father can be seen to be the specter of Catholicism haunting the new Protestant way of life. <em>Othello <\/em>is seen to show the evils of Protestant faith in the villainous Iago countering the Catholicism of Desdemona and Othello himself.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8056\" style=\"width: 357px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/Shakespeare_Reformation3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8056\" class=\"wp-image-8056 \" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/Shakespeare_Reformation3.jpg\" alt=\"Shakespeare_Reformation3\" width=\"347\" height=\"214\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8056\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 3: Destruction of Religious Icons<\/p><\/div>\n<p>William Shakespeare did not shy away from addressing the conflicts of his time in many of his plays. Though we never get a clear picture as to what side of the Reformation he personally found himself on, we are still to this day able to see the themes of censorship, tyranny, and control that so often presented itself in his lifetime.<\/p>\n<p>For further reading on the role religion in Shakespeare\u2019s plays, I highly suggest <em>Shakespeare and the Culture of Christianity in Early Modern England, <\/em>edited by Dennis Taylor and David Beauregard<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Miola, Robert S. &#8220;Shakespeare\u2019s Religion.&#8221; <em>First Things<\/em>. First Things, May 2008. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Pettegree, Andrew. &#8220;The English Reformation.&#8221; <em>BBC News<\/em>. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro, James. &#8220;Is This a Holiday?&#8221; <em>A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare<\/em>. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. 138-70. Print.<\/p>\n<p>Trueman, Chris. &#8220;The Religious Settlement of 1559\u201d The History Learning Site, 17 Mar. 2015. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pictures:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Church destroyed during the English Reformation: <a href=\"http:\/\/supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com\/2014\/09\/destruction-and-iconclasm-in-english.html\">http:\/\/supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com\/2014\/09\/destruction-and-iconclasm-in-english.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Ditchley Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger c 1592<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Portraiture_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England#\/media\/File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_(%27The_Ditchley_portrait%27)_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger.jpg\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Portraiture_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England#\/media\/File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_(%27The_Ditchley_portrait%27)_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Destruction of religious images in Zurich, 1524<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/2\/2b\/Destruction_of_icons_in_Zurich_1524.jpg\">https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/2\/2b\/Destruction_of_icons_in_Zurich_1524.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of William Shakespeare we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of his death on April 23, 2016. What better way to do this, than by highlighting the writing done by first-year students in Associate Professor of English John Wesley\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/celebrating-shakespeare-why-religion-matters-shakespeare-and-the-english-reformation-by-maddy-mccombs\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[104,105],"class_list":["post-8051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrating-shakespeare","tag-celebrating-shakespeare","tag-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8051"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8147,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051\/revisions\/8147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}