Shakespeare’S Satirical Representation of the Elizabethan Court and the Nobility in His English History Plays

Abstract

Late Elizabethan society was marked with the growing discontent about socio-economic failures resulting from the failure of crops, high inflation and riots. The scarcity of financial resources of the royal patronage led to factionalism, while the arbitrary distribution of favours and bottom-up pressures of patronees further problematised a healthy relationship among patrons, patronees and within society. Deception and hypocrisy were necessary in order to survive verbal and non-verbal means of factionalism, which targeted especially one’s reputation. This, however, problematised the perception of the reality of social behaviour and only postponed the solutions to the problems, which were transformed into a growing discontent towards the regime. Although outbursts of discontent were fragmented in nature, gradually they formed a cumulative attitude of dissent towards the Elizabethan regime. From the late 1580s onwards, negative attitudes against the rule of Elizabeth I were tried to .....