Description: Caesarian power was a crucial context in the Renaissance, as rulers in Europe, Russia and Turkey all sought to appropriate Caesarian imagery and authority, but it has been surprisingly little explored in scholarship. Analyzing plays by Shakespeare as well as other early modern dramatists, Lisa Hopkins explores the way in which the stories of the Caesars can be used to figure the stories of English rulers on the Renaissance stage.
Review Quotes: 'In this important study of the uses of the past in early modern England, Hopkins reminds us what has always been at stake in the term "Renaissance". Hopkins sheds new light on the importance of legends of British antiquity alongside (and often in tension with) the history of classical Rome.' Philip Schwyzer, University of Exeter, UK '... a well researched and useful work... adds an important dimension to the study of Roman-ness on the English stage.' Comparative Drama '... lively, well-researched, provocative...' Renaissance Quarterly