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SHAKESPEARE'S MEDIEVAL CRAFT: REMNANTS OF THE MYSTERIES ON THE LONDON STAGE. By Kurt A. Schreyer. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014; pp. 280.
The stylistic divide between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is often portrayed as a chasm so wide that this artistic transition seems more like a revolutionary coup d'état than a gradual development. This notion, popularized by Jacob Burckhardt's seminal The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) and reaffirmed by many scholars and students of the Renaissance, has taken on the cast of nearly unquestionable truth. However, Kurt Schreyer is one of many recent academics to add nuance to our views of how medieval practices continued to influence Renaissance artists well into the seventeenth century. In this book Schreyer soundly argues that Shakespeare's plays are deeply indebted to the late-medieval English mystery plays. This compelling argument is buttressed by a substantive analysis of the Chester Banns (a 1500s announcement of the performance of guild-produced religious drama), and by perceptive readings of stage properties in three plays (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and Macbeth). Schreyer's work is an excellent addition to studies that showcase the importance of examining Shakespeare's innovative employment of medieval theatrical traditions, such as Michael O'Connell's Blood Begetting Blood: Shakespeare and the Mysteries. More importantly, it augments a growing field of research that revises the temporal boundaries with which we frame cultural movements.
The material theatre is rarely given critical notice in the study of Shakespeare (Andrew Sofer 's The Stage Life of Props is a notable exception) because so little of it is...