Prophecy and Conspiracy in Early Modern England

98 Pages·2017·3.99 MB·English

Prophecy and Conspiracy
in Early Modern England

Selected Papers
from the “Shakespeare and His Contemporaries”
Graduate Conference
The British Institute of Florence
Florence, 22 April 2016

Edited by
Giuliana Iannaccaro and Massimiliano Morini

THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF FLORENCE

THE ITALIAN ASSOCIATION
OF SHAKESPEAREAN AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES
IASEMS Advisory Board

Mariacristina Cavecchi, Università degli Studi di Milano
Giuliana Iannaccaro, Università degli Studi di Milano
Donatella Pallotti, Università degli Studi di Firenze
Alessandra Petrina, Università degli Studi di Padova
Laura Tosi, Università degli Studi di Venezia “Ca’ Foscari”
Prophecy and Conspiracy
in Early Modern England

Selected Papers
from the “Shakespeare and His Contemporaries”
Graduate Conference
Florence, 22 April 2016

Edited by
Giuliana Iannaccaro and Massimiliano Morini

The British Institute of Florence
2017
Prophecy and Conspiracy in Early Modern England. Selected Papers from the
“Shakespeare and his Contemporaries” Graduate Conference. Florence, 22 April
2016 / edited by Giuliana Iannaccaro and Massimiliano Morini – Firenze: The
British Institute of Florence, 2017.

© The Contributors, 2017
ISBN (online): 978-88-907244-3-5
http://www.britishinstitute.it/it/biblioteca/biblioteca-harold-acton/events-at-the-
harold-acton-library

Graphic design by Massimiliano Morini and Giuliana Iannaccaro

Front cover: title page of Anon., Fourteene strange Prophesies: Besides, Mother Shiptons,
and Mr. Saltmarsh, predicting wonderfull events to betide these yeares of calamity, in this
Climate, whereof divers are already come to passe, worthy of observation. Printed for
Richard Harper, at the Bible and Harpe in Smithfield, 1648. British Library Thomason
Collection, Thomason / E.527[7].

Back cover: title page of Anon., A prophecie of the life, reigne, and death of VVilliam Laud,
Archbishop of Canterbury: by an exposition on part of the 13. and 15. chapters of the
Revelation of John. [London]: Printed for R.A., 1644. British Library Thomason Collection,
Thomason / E.18[8].

We act in good faith in publishing this material here. However, should they exist, any
legitimate copyright holder is invited to contact the editors.

This publication has been double blind peer reviewed.

This is an open access book licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means
that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author.
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Published by The British Institute of Florence
Lungarno Guicciardini, 9, 50125 Firenze, Italy
http://www.britishinstitute.it/it/
Contents

Alessandra Petrina
Preface ............................................................................................................................. 11

Massimiliano Morini
“Out on thee, seeming!”
Fashioning Plots in Much Ado About Nothing ................................................................ 17

Melissa Pullara
Oedipus in Arcadia: The Literary and Political Implications
of Prophetic Inversion in Elizabethan England ............................................................... 29

Michela Compagnoni
Deceitful Prophecies: Knots of Time in Shakespeare’s Macbeth ................................... 41

Martina Zamparo
“Great Apollo, turn all to the best!” An Alchemical Journey
Through Conspiracy, Prophecy, and Holiness in The Winter’s Tale .............................. 51

Carmen Gallo
The Manipulation of Truth: Prophecies and Conspiracies
in Shakespeare and Fletcher’s All is True, or Henry VIII (1613) .................................... 65

Giuliana Iannaccaro
Prophecy as Conspiracy in Revolutionary England ........................................................ 75

Contributors ..................................................................................................................... 91

Index of names ................................................................................................................ 93

Acknowledgements

The editors wish to thank the Italian Association of Shakespearean and Early Modern Studies, and
all IASEMS members who generously put their expertise at the service of this volume as peer
reviewers. Thanks to Alessandra for writing the preface. The editors also express their gratitude to
the British Institute of Florence and its Director, Julia Race, for having hosted the conference from
which this collection of essays has originated.