In Shakespeare Relocated Hugh Macrae Richmond uses his previously published essays to
illustrate the development of modern attitudes towards religion politics and sexuality. He
traces the complex evolution from classical and medieval sources to Reformation and Renaissance
ones by reviewing literary themes styles and attitudes. He stresses Shakespeare¿s unique
place in the evolution of historical psychology as an author profoundly affected by the
Reformation. This study of developing sensibility employs a method of critical analysis
bridging the apparent gap between scholarly research and practical criticism and transcends the
discontinuities and tensions in modern literary theory. He seeks to harmonize the critical
alertness of the New Critics with the traditional scholarship of their opponents while
avoiding the narrowness of many fashionable modern methodologies such as New Historicism
Neo-Freudianism radical feminism etc. This historical perspective involves a comparative
critical procedure defined as syncretic criticism. It combines close reading and comprehensive
perspective over previous literary analogues to identify distinctive progressions towards many
modern attitudes about politics morality sexuality and fashion.
