Shakespeare’s Common Prayers
The Book of Common Prayer and the Elizabethan Age
By Daniel Swift
The Protestants still wished for even more stringent religious
reforms, there was still a strong recusant Catholic presence in England and the
Book of Common Prayer was legally required to be used in all places and acts of
public worship. The Book of Common Prayer therefore attempted to follow a via media; in many ways it was
successful, and Daniel Swift has set out to show just how much influence the doctrine
as well as the mellifluent prayers and phraseology it contains had upon
Shakespeare when he was writing his plays. There is a phenomenal amount of
religious doctrine and language in the plays, which can easily be overlooked by
a casual reader of theatre-goer. Swift has examined three major sacramental
themes from the Book of Common Prayer: The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony,
The Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion and The
Ministration of Baptism to be Used in the Church, and examined these in the
light of the plays.
For anyone fascinated by Shakespeare, the England in which
he lived, religious beliefs and literature, this book is a delight. It does
presuppose a basic background knowledge of Roman Catholic and
Reformation-driven doctrinal beliefs, as well as reasonably good knowledge of
at least the story outlines of the Shakespearean plays, but it is extremely
thorough and very well-written, providing massive amounts of information in a
relatively condensed form. The digital proof I received was 286 pages long, but
managed to convey far more than its relatively slim dimensions would have
suggested.
This is an amazing book, but not really one for the faint
hearted or with little prior knowledge of Shakespeare’s works. I’ve always prided myself on being reasonably
au fait with much of the Shakespearean canon, but this book showed me how
little I really know, and how much I have still to learn. It has inspired me to re-acquaint myself with
Shakespeare, and I will certainly never look at the Book of Common Prayer in
quite the same light again.
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