Like The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580, this book provides fascinating background on the anti-Catholic world in which Shakespeare lived - a background which seems erased from popular and supposedly educated memory: "England, by the end of the seventeenth century, had become culturally anti-Catholic to such a degree that memories of Shakespeares's Catholicism would not have been the topic of polite conversation" (p. 92). Seeing other Catholics of his era murdered by the state, Shakespeare "would remain obedient to his king, his country, his faith, and his conscience, saying, through the medium of his plays, with Sir Thomas More...that he was the king's good servant, but God's first" (p. 150). Pearce tells us that there is a tremendous lack of appreciation for Shakespeare's faith and its influence on his work: "It is only because we live in an age of uncommon nonsense that Shakespeare remains misunderstood and misconstrued by...academe"(p. 172).
