Shakespeare In Love
Prologue
Shakespeare In Love with the Catholic Church
Setting the stage for Shakespeare’s mission and canon, as well as our quest to hear Shakespeare.
Book I: Budding Genius
The Taming of the Shrew · The Two Gentlemen of Verona · Titus Andronicus · The Comedy of Errors · Love’s Labour’s Lost
Here we taste the first fruits of a budding genius as Shakespeare experiments with bringing truth to the masses. In his hands, the arts become a means of proclamation, and comedy, history, and tragedy become vehicles for exploration.
Book II: Genius
Romeo and Juliet · A Midsummer Night’s Dream · The Merchant of Venice · The Merry Wives of Windsor · Much Ado About Nothing
The martyrdom of his cousin leads to the full flourishing of his genius. A genius that would endure across two decades on the English stage, giving the world timeless classics like Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and oh so many more.
Book III: All’s Well
Julius Caesar · As You Like It · Hamlet · Twelfth Night · Troilus and Cressida · Measure for Measure · Othello · All’s Well That Ends Well
As the Elizabethan era comes to a close, hope abounds that all will be well. Shakespeare leaves a vivid testimony to these troublesome and turbulent times, inviting his countrymen to reflect on what it means to be Catholic in tyrannical England.
Political England has been hostile to the true faith for nearly 70 years across multiple generations. Will England return to her Catholic roots? Or will the Old Religion remain a distant memory?
Book IV: Brave New World
King Lear · Timon of Athens · Macbeth · Antony and Cleopatra · Coriolanus · The Winter’s Tale · Cymbeline · The Tempest
At the dawn of the Jacobean era, new worlds are being settled across the Atlantic. These are strange times, when not only Churches clash, but civilizations themselves. In this brave new world, Shakespeare offers a glimmer of hope for English Catholics. Yet that hope might lie elsewhere — in faraway lands across the sea, or in paradise beyond the realm of the living and the dead.
Only time will tell what brave new world awaits.