ABSTRACT
Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill Shakespeare. Shakespeare's scene weaves in two further moments, namely the dramatic present in which the newly crowned Richard ponders the Rougemont incident, and the present time of the audience, for whom Bosworth is at once an accomplished historical fact and an anticipated future spectacle. Though Shakespeare never fully embraces the possibility of making the past live again, his plays acknowledges as well as undercut this most potent of Renaissance yearnings. The Blackfriars Theatre, part of the great Dominican priory of London dissolved in 1538, became the indoor theatre of the King's Men in 1608. Although whether and which of Shakespeare's later plays were written expressly for' Blackfriars remains a contentious issue. Gordon McMullan is undoubtedly right to say that a Blackfriars performance would have achieved considerable historical resonance.
