{"product_id":"staging-britains-past","title":"Staging Britain's Past","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eStaging Britain's Past\u003c\/i\u003e is the first study of the early modern performance of Britain's pre-Roman history. The mythic history of the founding of Britain by the Trojan exile Brute and the subsequent reign of his descendants was performed through texts such as Norton and Sackville’s \u003ci\u003eGorboduc\u003c\/i\u003e, Shakespeare’s \u003ci\u003eKing Lear \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCymbeline,\u003c\/i\u003e as well as civic pageants, court masques and royal entries such as Elizabeth I’s 1578 entry to Norwich. Gilchrist argues for the power of performed history to shape early modern conceptions of the past, ancestry, and national destiny, and demonstrates how the erosion of the Brutan histories  marks a transformation in English self-understanding and identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen published in 1608, Shakespeare’s \u003ci\u003eKing Lear \u003c\/i\u003eclaimed to be a “True Chronicle History”. Lear was said to have ruled Britain centuries before the Romans, a descendant of the mighty Trojan Brute who had conquered Britain and slaughtered its barbaric giants. But this was fake history. Shakespeare’s contemporaries were discovering that Brute and his descendants, once widely believed as proof of glorious ancient origins, were a mischievous medieval invention.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOffering a comprehensive account of the extraordinary theatrical tradition that emerged from these Brutan histories and the reasons for that tradition’s disappearance, this study gathers all known evidence of the plays, pageants and masques portraying Britain’s ancient rulers.  \u003ci\u003eStaging Britain's Past\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how the loss of England’s Trojan origins is reflected in plays and performances from \u003ci\u003eGorboduc\u003c\/i\u003e’s powerful invocation of history to \u003ci\u003eCymbeline’\u003c\/i\u003es elegiac erosion of all notions of historical truth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54226403787096,"sku":"9781350232822","price":40.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781350232822.jpg?v=1770877833","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/staging-britains-past","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}