Shakespeare and the Hunt: A Cultural and Social Study

Shakespeare and the Hunt is a book-length 2001 study of Shakespeare’s works in relation to the culture of the hunt in Elizabethan and Jacobean society. The book explores topics generally unfamiliar to Shakespeareans, such as the variety of kinds of hunting in the period, the formal rituals of the hunt, the roles of Queen Elizabeth and King James as hunters, the practice of organized poaching, and the arguments both for and against hunting. Situating Shakespeare’s works in this rich cultural context, Berry illuminates the plays from fresh angles. He explores, for example, the role of poaching in The Merry Wives of Windsor; the paradox of pastoral hunting in As You Like It; the intertwining of hunting and politics in The Tempest; and the gendered language of falconry in The Taming of the Shrew.