Discourses of Service in Shakespeare's England

One way and another, nearly all of Shakespeare's countrymen and women (including the playwright himself) spent at least parts of their lives as servants of someone else. But until now that fact has gone largely unregarded. This book remedies the oversight, by showing how the ideals and practices of early modern service affect dozens of characters in almost all the plays, in ways that enrich our understanding of familiar figures like Iago and Falstaff and enhance the significance of lesser-known people and events across the canon. And it introduces an important concept, volitional primacy, into contemporary critical discourse.

DAVID EVETT is Professor of English Emeritus at Cleveland State University, USA. He has published articles and given papers on many topics in early modern cultural history, and his earlier book, Literature and the Visual Arts in Tudor England (University of Georgia Press, 1990) won the British Council Prize in the Humanities. He has also published two books of poetry.