Shakespearean Fantasy and Politics

"This book examines the ways in which Shakespeare, during the course of his writing career, developed his thought in relation to the status of the theatre, language, politics and ethics. There is a broad chronological structure to the book which corresponds to its overarching argument: that Shakespeare's early plays exhibit a confidence in the power of the theatre which slowly drains from his work until, in Othello, he seems disgusted with himself, his theatre and above all his audience. In his late Jacobean plays Shakespeare articulates a new theatrical ethics that answers the doubts so radically expressed in Othello."--Jacket.