Shakespeare the Papist

 General Description:

Peter Milward, SJ

Shakespeare, who wrote at the beginning of the long period in which the Catholic faith as violently suppressed in the British Isles, has long enjoyed an iconic status. Some readers have interpreted him as an early agnostic, expressing modern angst about whether anything exists besides "this mortal coil" that seems to be merely "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." In recent years, however, thanks largely to the work of Peter Milward, close study of Shakespeare's plays has raised the question: Was Shakespeare in fact a believing Catholic? To this question, which radically changes the way that Shakespeare's plays should be read, Milward here offers, in his definitive study of the topic, a resounding "Yes."

“Shakespeare the Papist is Fr. Milward's climactic achievement in Shakespeare studies, an application of the background of English Catholicism to Shakespeare's works. The book is eloquent, even poignant...and always imaginative and compelling. Since Milward is the premier and pioneering scholar of Sharkespeare's Catholic background, Shakespeare the Papist is the definitive work we have been waiting for."

Dennis Taylor
Professor of English
Editor, “Religion and the Arts”
Boston College

“Fr. Milward offers a comprehensive, chronological study of the entire corpus of Shakespeare’s drama and argues for both a conspicuous and subtle Catholic presence in the plays and characters. This book offers a thought-provoking hypothesis about Shakespeare, and his complex relationship with the Catholic faith. Shakespeare the Papist is an important contribution to the renewed scholarly interest in this topic.”

Paul J. Voss
Georgia State University

About the Author:
Peter Milward, SJ is Professor Emeritus of Sophia University in Tokyo. He entered the Society of Jesus at St. Beuno’s College in North Wales in 1943 and then went on to study scholastic philosophy at Heythrop College, Oxon from 1947-50 and classical and English literature at Campion Hall, Oxford from 1950-54. He taught English literature, with special attention to Shakespearian drama, at Sophia University, Toyko from 1962-96, and then at Tokyo Junshin Women’s College, as dean of the faculty of Modern Culture, from 1996-2002. Fr. Milward is the founder of the Renaissance Institute and Renaissance Centre at Sophia University, and also the Chesterton Society of Japan and Hopkins Society of Japan. He is the author if innumerable books and articles both in Japan and abroad, especially on Shakespeare, Hopkins, and Chesterton.

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