Shakespeare, the King's Playwright

Of the many, many thousands of books about Shakespeare, "how many have said something which is both new and true? Not many." (Prof. Lawrence Stone, Princeton Univ.) Prof. Stone goes on to say that this is such a book and so it is. I couldn't agree more. What Kernan does is to concentrate on the later stage of Shakespeare's career, when his company of players became the "King's Men," with King James I himself as official patron. Having obtained the best acting company and playwright for himself, James saw to it that his queen and two offspring at court each had their own acting company, so that the royal family supported four different groups of actors and playwrights. The support was substantial... a performance at the Globe might net a pound or so as total income, whereas James dispensed lump-sum payments of 10, 20 or even 30 pounds for a weekend of palace performances by the King's Men. Kernan places Shakespeare's plays of the period within the context of James I's background, interests and enthusiasms. He also places the plays in the larger context of patronage art. Kernan writes both for scholars and the general public, and his writing style maintains high levels of clarity and even of crafted artistry. The book is simultaneously information-packed, plentiful with new insights, and soundly based in scholarship. Shakespeare, as one of the greatest artists of all time, did not write "for" James I, in any blatantly obvious way (as some other playwrights of the period made the grave mistake of doing), but there is no way to understand the themes and situations of the plays Shakespeare wrote during this period, without an understanding of James I. My highest recommendation.