Bravehearts: Images of Masculinity in Shakespeare's History Plays

Abstract

1 Ten plays are listed as 'Histories' in the First Folio of Shakespeare's collected works. The tenth, Henry VIII, originally entitled All is True, is believed to have been produced in collaboration with John Fletcher in 1613. It was during a performance of this play that the Globe theatre was burned to the ground on June 29th of that year. Henry VIII differs significantly from the earlier histories both in content and in dramatic style. 2 William Shakespeare, Twelfe Night, or What you will, line 2564, quoted from The First Folio of Shakespeare (London: Hamlyn, 1968). All quotations from Shakespeare's plays are taken from this edition and future references, identified by line number, appear in the text. 'Man's Estate' is also the title of Coppelia Kahn's study of Masculine Identity in Shakespeare, (Berkeley: University of California Press 1981).