Midsummer Monsieur - The French Court in Shakespeare
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Description
Could A Midsummer Night's Dream contain allegorical references that satirize Queen Elizabeth's long & melodramatic courtship with the Duc of Alencon?
Join Earl Showerman as we visit the court of Queen Elizabeth I in the 1570s. Statesmen, nobles, and perhaps even the queen herself are divided over whether or not Elizabeth should marry the younger brother of the King of France. Dramatics ensue onstage and off, in a surprisingly strange and significant episode of English history.
And what might be most surprising is that this colorful, contentious time might be preserved in all its absurdity and otherworldliness in one of Shakespeare's best known plays.
"And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays."
— Bottom, A Midsummer Night's Dream
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