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This research paper will infer that Shakespeare in his plays shared Anglican dogmas, ideas, and attitudes: comprehension, compromise, via media, passive obedience, hate for rebels, a divine king, and a longing for order. Though we cannot find decisive evidence of his religious conviction in public records and his works, and every argument remains speculative, it is felt unnatural for some readers of sixteenth- and seventeeth-century English literature to assume an a-historical and secular stance to Shakespeare’s works. Many plays were written in the age of the Elizabethan Settlement with the via media policies which sought a compromise between Protestantism and Catholicism. The queen was inclusive, pragmatic, and sometimes tyrannical, and, as Francis Bacon wrote, she told her subjects that “I have no desire to make windows into men’s souls,” meaning that she just wanted outward obedience in church and state. Therefore, England under her reign enjoyed peace for more than forty years at home and for thirty years abroad. Shakespreare lived during golden age in English history. Religious Shakespeare is not popular among academics, still there are important preceding studies and comments on his faith, some of which will be reviewed for grasping the general outline of the topic. |
