The movement towards subversion: The English history play from Skelton to Shakespeare

My dissertation explores the theme of power in the Renaissance English history play, a fascinating genre whose earliest works include Skelton's Magnificence and Bale's King Johan. My study analyzes the growing subversion of the social order in Renaissance Drama from Magnificence to Shakespeare's King Lear. When Shakespeare begins writing history plays in approximately 1589-90, he inherits a tradition that has evolved for more than half a century. As the genre progresses, it becomes more subversive politically, for the dramas begin to challenge the sociopolitical hierarchy instead of reinforcing it. Shakespeare's historical drama exemplifies this growing political subversion; as the playwright's career develops, his dramas of this genre increasingly question established ideologies, such as the belief in divine right, in the king's two bodies, and in history as providential. His plays are more subversive than earlier Tudor works containing similar themes, and as his historical drams begin to undermine traditional hierarchies with greater force, the genre itself shifts, blending history with tragedy. Consequently, King Lear possesses many tragic elements and frequently has been labeled as a tragedy only; the play is actually a tragical history, a merging of the two genres. In fact, throughout my study I deliberately blur reductive demarcations between genres, for as playwrights increasingly demystify received notions of teleological design and challenge religious and political ideologies of kingship, they create dramatic conclusions that imply a correspondingly more tragic view of English history.