Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe, by Chris Laoutaris
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Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe, by Chris Laoutaris
PDF Ebook Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe, by Chris Laoutaris
The colorful story of the creation of the Globe Theatre―as a result of the dramatic confrontation between Lady Elizabeth Russell and William Shakespeare.
In November 1596, a woman signed a document that would nearly destroy the career of William Shakespeare . . .
Who was this woman who played such an instrumental, yet little known, role in Shakespeare's life? Never far from controversy when she was alive―she sparked numerous riots and indulged in acts of breaking-and-entering, bribery, blackmail, kidnapping and armed combat―Lady Elizabeth Russell, the self-styled Dowager Countess of Bedford, has been edited out of public memory, yet the chain of events she set in motion would make Shakespeare the legendary figure we all know today.
Lady Elizabeth Russell’s extraordinary life made her one of the most formidable women of the Renaissance. The daughter of King Edward VI’s tutor, she blazed a trail across Elizabethan England as an intellectual and radical Protestant. And, in November 1596, she became the leader of a movement aimed at destroying William Shakespeare’s theatrical troupe―a plot that resulted in the closure of the Blackfriars Theatre but the construction, instead, of the Globe.
Providing new pieces to this puzzle, Chris Laoutaris's rousing history reveals for the first time this startling battle against Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
16 pages of color and B&W illustrations
Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe, by Chris Laoutaris - Amazon Sales Rank: #1279378 in Books
- Brand: Laoutaris, Chris
- Published on: 2015-06-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.90" w x 6.40" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 528 pages
Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe, by Chris Laoutaris Review “Surprising. Interesting. Elizabeth deserves the years of research and hundreds of pages that Laoutaris has given her; she can now join the gallery of neglected women resurrected by feminist scholarship.” (The Washington Post)“The season’s big mainstream Shakespeare book. Elizabeth Russell is a terrific subject for a biography, and Laoutaris is a hugely energetic narrator who brings every detail of his story to life. So entertaining. A big, rambunctious biography carried off with storytelling aplomb and deep, sometimes groundbreaking research.” (Open Letters Monthly)“The story of Shakespeare and the Countess has all the hallmarks of one of his famous plays – treachery, deception, death and triumph. A fantastic tale. Laoutaris discovered a web of deceit and a true villain worthy of any of Shakespeare’s plays – as well as information previously thought lost.” (Daily Mail)“In this in-depth biography Laoutaris paints an engaging portrait of this powerful noblewoman. Those interested in religious history, especially the religious wars in England; the history and intrigues of Elizabethan England; women''s history; and Shakespearean history will find this book an immensely riveting read.” (Library Journal)“I''m in love with the brilliant research on display in Shakespeare and the Countess and how it brings to light Lady Elizabeth Russell, a force to bereckoned with and a trailblazing early feminist.” (Observer, Best Books of the Year)“This is a detailed biography of a vigorous (if not likeable) woman who stood close to power throughout the reign of Elizabeth I. [Elizabeth] Russell was a remarkable person - clever, domineering and ruthless... Laoutaris has done a thorough research job.” (Sunday Times)“Laoutaris delves into all this with immense gusto, introducing his readers to a dizzying cast of characters and approaching his subject from myriad different angles. Thanks to [his] impressive research, this largely forgotten figure emerges as a woman of great erudition, determination and courage, scarcely less remarkable than her namesake and contemporary Elizabeth I.” (The Literary Review)“A work of historical and literary detection which takes us straight to the heart of religious politics in Elizabethan England.” (The New Statesman)“Fabulous! Chris Laoutaris reveals an untold story about William Shakespeare. It’s a gripping tale that enables us to see Shakespeare in a new light. I could not recommend it highly enough.” (#1 New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir)“Historian and biographer Chris Laoutaris tells the story of Russell's life, her epic legal battles and her capricious, violent world with sympathy, scholarship and vivid description. He has done extensive original research to piece together new insights and map the complex connections of Elizabethan society.” (Shelf Awareness)“One word William Shakespeare didn’t invent but could have: NIMBY. Laoutaris tells the story of Elizabeth Russell, the wealthy and educated daughter of King Edward VI's tutor. She argued that a new playhouse would bring 'all manner of vagrant and lewd persons' to her London neighborhood. Stymied, the theater group built the soon-to-be-famous Globe in another area.” (New York Post, 'This Week’s Must-Read Books,' 6/27/15)“The dense story of the 1596 endeavor by a powerful, litigious countess to block the opening of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Theatre in London. Intrepid research.” (Kirkus Reviews)“A tale of 16th century NIMBYism. The Puritan termagant Elizabeth Russell mounted a successful campaign against a theatre company, which boasted one W. Shakespeare as a partner. Laoutaris has unearthed a fascinating story.” (The Independent (UK))“It could be a tale for the stage itself, involving an ambitious parvenu, a self-styled countess, more than a hint of treachery and one of the more spectacular examples of historical Nimbysim.” (Daily Telegraph)“Life comes close to imitating art in Shakespeare and the Countess. Laoutaris resuscitates as the great playwright’s foil the long-forgotten Elizabeth Russell, a self-proclaimed dowager countess and unblushing harridan, who could have stepped out of a turbulent history play. Laoutaris throws fascinating light on the Puritans’ determined fight against both Roman Catholicism and the newly established Church of England and on her success in preventing the Burbages, the playwright’s partners, from opening an indoor theatre in Blackfriars beside her home.” (The New York Times)“While Shakespeare serves as this book’s headline attraction, it is the ambitious, crafty, and eagerly litigious Elizabeth Russell who takes center stage in this power struggle-filled Elizabethan drama. Shakespeare scholar Laoutaris (Shakespearean Maternities) clearly respects Russell’s ability to outmaneuver her well-heeled enemies as he fleshes out her decades of property acquisitions and continual pressure on high-ranking members of her extended Cecil and Bacon families.” (Publishers Weekly)“An energetic and enterprising book. Laoutaris has done some very valuable archival work. It is certainly a story worth telling, and Laoutaris tells it well.” (‹London Review of Books)“Greatly enjoy[ed] Shakespeare and the Countess. Fascinating how much archives can still yield.” (Stanley Wells, General Editor of the Oxford Shakespeare series)“In his compelling book Chris Laoutaris sheds new light on this turbulent episode in the Bard''s career. It is a fascinating story and Laoutaris tells it with a winning combination of scholarly rigour and elegant prose. Contributing something fresh in the crowded arena of Shakespeare studies is not easy, but Laoutaris has done precisely that. A splendid book.” (Herald Scotland)“Genuinely groundbreaking. A kickass lady. Elizabeth Russell is awesome. It’s a thrilling tale and Laoutaris tells it superbly, with fluency and passion and a masterful eye for the dramatic. Emphatic, meticulously researched and strikingly original, Shakespeare and the Countess is bursting at the seams with new research.” (Marylebone Journal (Book of the Week))“A splendid and original book. No one has fleshed out the characters [in the battle for Shakespeare''s playhouse] or followed in their footsteps as assiduously as Laoutaris. Shakespeare''s adversary was a formidable old trout fully deserving of a biography in her own right.” (Sunday Telegraph (Book of the Week))“Engaging and informative. Readers will get a bird’s eye view of court life, religious infighting, political scheming, competing spies and international intrigue at the turn of the 17th century. Laoutaris is an indefatigable researcher and a fine prose stylist.” (Providence Journal)
About the Author Dr. Chris Laoutaris is a Lecturer and Birmingham Fellow at The Shakespeare Institute in Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-Upon-Avon. As well as being recently commissioned as a contributor to Cambridge University’s Cambridge Guide to Shakespeare’s First Folio, Laoutaris has written for the Financial Times and Sunday Express. He is currently working on a project for the Shakespeare Institute called Team Shakespeare: The Men who Created the Shakespeare Legacy.
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Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Well worth your interest! By Suzanne Cross I'm lucky enough to have a relative who helped the author with his research, since she's the historian for Bisham Church where lots of things took place and the Countess has her superb and remarkable monument. So you might say I had a bit of an "in" when I bought the book. But I must say, this book is worth reading if you love the Elizabethan political world or Shakespeare or life in London in the 1590's, or any combination thereof. In addition, the author has touched the Holy Grail - some genuinely new logical deductions leading to information about why Shakespeare and his fellows built the Globe across the Thames, rather than settling in to do aristo-theatre on the "respectable" bank in 1597. And the implications for that choice ARE enormous. I found the author slightly labored the connection to Shakespeare - the bulk of the book is about Elizabeth Russell, the self-styled Dowager Countess of Bedford, a woman in her own way quite as remarkable and much less well known than Bess of Hardwick. For any woman to read about an Elizabethan woman who simply refused to "know her place" is wildly refreshing, but Laoutaris has, with infinite pains, teased out the sequence she initiated to deny those low-born players a license to play near her town house in the Blackfriars. In so doing, you learn lots and lots about the world in which Shakespeare was just making a name for himself, which I find fascinating. All in all, well worth your time and investment (and the more you already know, the more you will appreciate Laotaris' deductions). Also, thankfully, he never suggests that Shakespeare the player was actually a consortium of a half-dozen Elizabethan nobles of both sexes, which I found refreshing.In every picture I have seen of Elizabeth Russell, she wears this extraordinary starched linen headdress, and the author early on refers to her as being like "a cobra, ready to strike." I can't get that entirely appropriate image out of my head! It's nice to think of Will swearing quietly under his breath as, thanks to the Countess, they had to rethink the entire plan that led to King Lear, Macbeth, et al.!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A detailed picture of Elizabethan life By Carole P. Roman Well researched biography of the formidable self styled Dowager Countess, Lady Elizabeth Russell. Unapologetic, fearless, and willing to battle, she spearheaded a group determined to keep William Shakespeare's acting troupe from preforming in Blackfriars Theaters. Lost in history, Chris Laoutaris brings the infamous "Grey Lady," back to life, giving a reader a window into the climate of Elizabethan England, as well as a backdrop to the birth of the Globe theatre. This is a detailed book about the life and times of people who influenced the court. It is said that art imitates life, and perhaps Shakespeare was even moved enough to use his adversary Russell when he created some of his most vile female characters.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Elizabeth Russell seemed to be a modern woman, fighting for what she saw was her own rights , but in a nasty and violent way By Mystic by the Lake I picked up this book because like tons of people, I am a fan of Shakespeare. I even named my daughter after one of his most famous female characters. I also love reading about Tudor court intrigue. But the more I read about Elizabeth Russell, the more I realized that she reminded me of someone in my own neighborhood--the President of our Homeowners' Board!! This woman can also be nasty and underhanded, a queen bee who gathers her allies (handmaidens and drones) to get her own way in the neighborhood, against the better judgment of other neighbors. So in many ways, Elizabeth seemed to be a modern woman, fighting for what she saw was her own rights, and those of her family and associates, although she too was nasty, underhanded and even violent about it. She was also definitely a meddling mother. There were other women, like the sisters of the Earl of Essex, who were active politically or socially in their own way. So the picture I have of passive Tudor gentlewomen, listening to music, reading and doing needlework, have definitely been changed by this book. I would love to see an author write a historical fiction account of Elizabeth Russell's life, someone like Philippa Gregory, Elizabeth Fremantle, or Leanda de Lisle.
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Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe, by Chris Laoutaris
