Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-220) and index.

"Shakespearean Tragedy as Chivalric Romance: Rethinking Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear interprets these plays less as tragedies after their protagonists than as romances according to the figures and motifs coloring and shaping them." "The author counters the conventional wisdom and its biases against romance, and questions received opinion about literary genre and cultural history. He presents historical, bibliographic, and literary evidence for the resurgent vitality of chivalric romance at the end of Elizabeth's reign and the start of James's rule. This neo-chivalric revival featured chivalric romances or materials fashioned from them for the mixed purposes of popular entertainment and political expression." "In this context and for a theater company preferred by the throne, Shakespeare exploited chivalric romance to explore themes of governance, legitimacy, and succession in these plays. Although their protagonists are pre-eminent, they give way to improved polities and worthier successors. Their triumph represents an order which prevails because justice triumphs. Subordinating tragedy to romance, Shakespeare offered a tempered optimism about the outcome of contested issues."--Jacket.

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