ABSTRACT
There has been something of a boom in emblem studies over the last couple of decades, in which Shakespeare has also received his due of attention. But booms are usually accompanied by inflation, and Shakespeare studies have both profited and suffered as a result. Most scholars writing about Shakespeare and the emblem do not define their terms. They assume that people all know what an emblem is, and which dramatic effects can be labelled emblematic. In her essay 'Emblematic pictures for the less privileged in Shakespeare's England', Elizabeth Truax reviews the evidence of an emblematic cultural context for Shakespeare's plays. Truax suggests that although during his later life Shakespeare would have been familiar with the decorative arts at court, he would have been more familiar with the illustrations in emblem books and the emblematic pictures found in public places, familiar to less privileged members of society as well as to the gentry.
