The Dynamics of Inheritance on the Shakespearean Stage. By Michelle M. Dowd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Illus. Pp. xiii + 290.

Abstract

The Dynamics of Inheritance on the Shakespearean Stage investigates the ways in which early modern drama stages and constructs alternatives to the presumably rigid system of primogeniture. Dowd’s central claim is that “early modern theater played a unique and vital role in shaping how patrilineage was understood” (5–6), in no small part because “rightful succession is fundamentally a narrative construct” in the first place (1). The book’s broad scope demonstrates how inheritance was reimagined at all socioeconomic levels, offering an important intervention into the study of lineage, which has primarily focused on royalty and the nobility. Dowd is especially insightful in exploring how the very elements of primogeniture that ought to have enabled its stability were the elements that allowed for interpretation, flexibility, and idiosyncrasy. The word “dynamics” in the title refers both to the functionality of inheritance and its variability, change, and movement. Dowd argues that, while “inheritance, to...