Shakespeare, Catholicism, and Romance

Velma Bourgeois Richmond is a past Fulbright Scholar and recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. She is Emeritus Professor of English at the Holy Names College, Oakland, California and is the author of studies of Muriel Spark and Geoffrey Chaucer, Laments for the Dead in Medieval Narrative, The Popularity of Middle English Romance, and The Legend of Guy of Warwick.

Illustrations
Preface
Introduction

Part I The Christian Vision and Living in Shakespeare’s World
1 Medieval Christendom
Seven Sacraments
The Romance Tradition
2 Reformation Changes and Lingering Images
Restoration and Reform under Queen Mary Tudor
Elizabeth and Enforced Protestantism
Puritans
Mysteries’ End
The Romance Tradition
3 The Shakespeares of Stratford

Part 2 The Tradition of Romance
4 The Romance Mode: Medieval Origins and Some Reworkings
The Comedy of Errors (c. 1589-94)
Two Gentlemen in Verona (c. 1590-94)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595)
The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596-97)
5 Understanding the Romance Mode
As You Like It (1598-1600)
Twelfth Night (1600-1602)
Anti-Romance: Chaucer Revisited
6 Lost Men and Women: Suffering and Transcendence
All’s Well that Ends Well (c. 1601-5)
Pericles (1606-8)
Cymbeline (c. 1608-10)
The Tempest (c. 1611)
7 The Romance Mode Attained: Accused Wives and Queens
Hero in Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598-99)
Desdemona in Othello (1604-5)
Hermione in The Winter’s Tale (c. 1609-11)
Katherine in Henry VIII (1613)

Conclusion
Notes
A Bibliographical Note
Index