Elizebethan Mentality

Lilian Winstanley wrote, ``The mentality of his audience provides him with at least half of his material. It is through that mentality that his plays must be reviewed and considered; it is to that mentality they must all appeal.''
Our age has ignored this and appealed to 20th-21st century readers of 20th-21st century psychology. Winstanley located this in 19th century psychology and has special criticism for AC Bradley, as his effort to masquerade the very 16th early 17th century Shakespeare in so called universals terms of reference, that is late 19th early 20th century psychological terms of reference.She proposes to put Shakespeare ``in his place'' in order to better understand him and his dialogue with his audience and thus enable us to have a more complete picutre of the man and his time..
So we must brush up on 16th century psychology, as well as its history.
``The mentality of his audience everywhere shapes and conditions his work as certainly as the work of a sculptor is shaped by the architecture and purpose of the building in which it stands. The sculpture of the Parthenon is not more certainly adapted to the purpose of the Parthenon than are the plays of a true dramatist to the mentality of his audience

Lilian Winstanley's Three Shakespeare Books

In her introduction, Lilian Winstanley writes, ``It is the purpose of the following essay to study the play `Hamlet' from a somewhat fresh point of view by endeavoring to show its relation or possible relation to contemporary history.'' To appreciate the mind-set of this Elizabethan audience and therefore the mind of Shakespeare we are about to receive a 16th century history lesson. It will cover the material suggested in the titles of Prof. Winstanley's three Shakespeare books:
1) Hamlet and the Scottish Succession: Being an Examination of the Relations of the Play of Hamlet to the Scottish Succession and the Essex Conspiracy
2) Macbeth, King Lear & contemporary history: Being a study of the relations of the play of Macbeth to the personal history of James I, the Darnley murder, ... and also of King Lear as symbolic mythology
3) "Othello" as the tragedy of Italy: Showing that Shakespeare's Italian contemporaries interpreted the story of the Moor and the lady of Venice as symbolizing ... of their country in the grip of Spain

The Stage Was the Message

At the turn of the 16th century there was no American first amendment, no radio, no newspaper, and of course no internet. News was presented in terms that Winstanley called ``symbolic mythology''. The main character names had to be changed or the author and actors risked being brought before the star chamber. That and the execution of Lord Essex aka Robert Devereaux who was a backer of ``Hamlet'' and other plays by the same author, for Essex's role in ``accelerating'' James to power, was a lesson not wasted on the interested parties.For the living reader several questions might be asked: Was Hamlet based on the 12th century Danish saga by Saxo Gramaticus? Or a history from the more recent Holinshed? Or was this well attended production aimed at a very curious audience as to who their next ruler might be? and what he might be? Things were looking good for James VI of Scotland, in spite of his existentialist doubts as revealed in privy correspondence between the young Scottish king and his cousin the more mature, educated in statecraft by both her ruthless father Henry VIII as well as personal experience, Queen Elizabeth as revealed by Lilian Winstanley in her Hamlet book.

Lilian Winstanley & History Today

RESURRECTING LILIAN WINSTANLEY/HISTORY TODAY
In 1567, the Earl of Bothwell and his lover Mary Queen of Scots murdered her husband Lord Darnley, the father of the future James VI of Scotland, later James I of England. That is in part the historical substance Shakespeare's play ``Hamlet'', as posited Professor Lilian Winstanley in her groundbreaking book ``Hamlet and the Scottish Succession: Being an Examination of the Relations of the Play of Hamlet to the Scottish Succession and the Essex Conspiracy''.This assassination and cover-up was still on the about to be regime changed minds of the audience in attendance of ``Hamlet'' in 1600 and 300 miles south of the crime scene in Stratford on Avon. This Elizabethan audience was concerned not just with ``old regicides'' as Darnley was considered informally the King; but also the peaceful succession to its Queen Elizabeth, as well as two possible invasions--one from the north in Scotland, and one from the southwest, the Spanish Armada.