Stages of Madness

"In re-evaluating the contemporary staging of madness in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries this book provides a clearer understanding and interpretation of characters who suffer from mental and emotional extremities in Shakespearean drama. It addresses three factors that contribute to early modern concepts of madness. These are theories of the 'self' current and emergent in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries; contemporary medical writings on madness; and the legacy of portrayals of madness from classical Greek and Roman drama, with a particular focus on the Roman tragedian, Seneca. The more complete understanding that this combined approach provides facilitates a better-informed reading of Shakespeare's plays, plays that so often deal with mental and emotional extremities that were once thought of as 'madness'. Hamlet, Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, King Lear, Edgar, Othello, even Antipholous and Malvolio, are all characters for whom this work provides a better understanding"--