Some Aspects of Shakespeare's "Holinshed"

Abstract

Every student of sixteenth-century literature is aware of the three volumes (frequently bound in two) of the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1587, often referred to as Shakespeare's Holinshed from the nineteenth century on, when scholars recognized that in writing thirteen of his plays Shakespeare turned to the more up-to-date edition rather than to the earlier two volumes published in 1577. Many of these students are also aware that the edition was subjected to government censorship, the various pages and sections subjected to scrutiny having been spelled out by Sidney Lee in the DNB (1891) and, most usefully, in the NSTC (1986). Since the method of, and motivation for, this scrutiny have not, however, received the same attention, the purpose of this essay is to present evidence relating to the censorship of this work-censorship which was, surprisingly, twice a matter of concern in a period of three years, and which represented the most extensive interference on the part of the government in a literary work.1

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