Shakespeare and his work have inspired many books by literary scholars and historians throughout the century. What can we know about a man of whom nothing is known, except what he chose to let his characters say and do? Can there really be any certainty about Shakespeare’s opinions, thoughts, ideas, even on the most trivial matters? Isn’t this a dangerous confusion of person and fiction?

This essay will not try to find certainty among the many statements made about author and work over the years but try to relate some of Shakespeare’s ‘non-historical’ plays to contemporary politics – one part dedicated to the English Renaissance as a century of change and progress, the other part literary analysis of Shakespeare’s plays with consideration of this political zeitgeist. Shakespeare and his work have inspired many books by literary scholars and historians throughout the century. What can we know about a man of whom nothing is known, except what he chose to let his characters say and do? Can there really be any certainty about Shakespeare’s opinions, thoughts, ideas, even on the most trivial matters? Isn’t this a dangerous confusion of person and fiction?

This essay will not try to find certainty among the many statements made about author and work over the years but try to relate some of Shakespeare’s ‘non-historical’ plays to contemporary politics – one part dedicated to the English Renaissance as a century of change and progress, the other part literary analysis of Shakespeare’s plays with consideration of this political zeitgeist.