Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare: A Way Out of the Wreck

Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare: A Way Out of the Wreck assesses the four last plays of Shakespeares First FolioCymbeline, The Tempest, Henry VIII, and The Winters Taleproviding underappreciated resources for political thought and reflection. This study examines the ruling communities in each of these plays, exploring what virtues are dramatized as necessary in a courtiers fulfillment of his or her political obligations. By lending courtly virtues close attention, Shakespearean audiences can better appreciate how much a given court has been reformed or could be further improved in the future. Indeed, these four late plays prove remarkably united in their presentation of five virtuespatience, piety, fidelity, clemency, and diligencewhich consistently appear desirable for rulers to have and for regimes to encourage. Moreover, the visions of tyranny offered in these plays remind readers how much is at stake should these virtues decay or collapse. The presence or absence of signals whether any political community will, to borrow the language of Henry VIII, chart for themselves a way out of the wreck.