Reading the River in Shakespeares Britain PAPERBACK 9781399534499

Edinburgh University Press

Reading the River in Shakespeares BritainAuthor(s): Bill Angus, Lisa Hopkins\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Edinburgh University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Edinburgh University Press\nISBN-13: 9781399534499, 978-1399534499\nSynopsis\nIn Shakespeares Britain rivers were not only a crucial form of travel and important natural resources which sustained communities and provided employment but were also sites to which myths and memories accrued and which could be used to figure religious ideas of cleansing and the waters of life. Pageants were performed on them, legends grew up about their names and led to plays and poems being written about personified river gods and goddesses, and stories were told of historic battles which had been fought on their banks. These essays explore the cultural and literary geography of rivers in the early modern period and the ways in which they shaped the lives and identities of those who lived near them. By charting changes (both manmade and natural) .