Includes bibliographical references and index.

An illuminating account of how Shakespeare addressed the tensions of Queen Elizabeth's England in two great plays. Conspiracies and revolts simmered beneath the surface of Queen Elizabeth's reign. England was riven with tensions created by both religious conflict and the growing prospect of a dynastic crisis. In this rich, incisive account, Peter Lake reveals how in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet Shakespeare explored quintessential Tudor anxieties, including concerns about the nature of justice, resistance and salvation. In both Hamlet and Titus, the princes are faced with a succession forged under questionable circumstances. They each have a choice: whether or not to respond with political violence. The unfolding action, Lake argues, is best viewed in terms of contemporary debates about the legitimacy of resistance and the relation between religion and politics. Teasing out how these dramatic works relate to their broader political and polemical contexts, Lake transforms our understanding of these canonical plays - and of the nature of revenge, resistance and religion in post-Reformation England.