This unique collection of essays and images explores a series of objects in the Royal
Collection as a means of assessing the interrelated histories of the British royal family and
the Shakespearean afterlife across four centuries. Between the beginning of the eighteenth
century and the late twentieth Shakespeare became entrenched as the English national poet.
Over the same period the monarchy sought repeatedly to demonstrate its centrality to British
nationhood. By way of close analysis of a selection of objects from the Royal Collection this
volume argues that the royal family and the Shakespearean afterlife were far more closely
interwoven than has previously been realized. The chapters map the mutual development over
time of the relationship between members of the British royal family and Shakespeare
demonstrating the extent to which each has gained sustained value from association with the
other and showing how members of the royal family have individually and collectively
constructed their identities and performed their roles by way of Shakespearean models. Each
chapter is inspired by an object in (or formerly in) the Royal Collection and explores two
interconnected questions: what has Shakespeare done for the royal family and what has the
royal family done for Shakespeare? The chapters range across the fields of art theatre history
literary criticism literary history court studies and cultural history showing how the
shared history of Shakespeare and the royal family has been cultivated across media and across
disciplines.
