Did
you know? Hamlet is usually dated 1601; two
years later Elizabeth I would die leaving no heir to the throne.
The issue of succession (who would inherit the throne) was
at the front of people’s minds, but to write a play
about this was a dangerous political act. The Catholics were
keen that the throne should pass to a Catholic monarch but
when Elizabeth I died in 1603 the Protestant James I succeeded.
In 1605 the disheartened Catholics attempted to assassinate
James I with the Gunpowder plot.
The play King Lear also starts with the problem of succession.
Tackling this subject can still be dangerous. When Michael
Boyd was training in Russia one of his fellow directors was
not allowed to direct King Lear as the Russian President,
Leonid Brezhnev, was ill and the play was considered too political.
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