ABSTRACT
The subject of William Shakespeare and religion can be investigated from either historical or transhistorical points of view. For most of the twentieth century, Shakespeare was seen either presciently to anticipate secular modernity or to facilitate secularization by aesthetically appropriating religious material. Shakespeare's plays may not stage religiously motivated regicides; but, as the assassinations of Henri III and Henri IV of France and William of Nassau in the Low Countries illustrated, contemporary examples of the killings of rulers could be seen as religiously motivated. Some historical studies discuss religion in Shakespearean drama in terms of the dramatist's supposed beliefs and intentions as well as in relation to the responses of his religiously mixed audiences in the real-life circumstances of local and national politics and social history. Political theology is foregrounded in one of Shakespeare's most religiously saturated plays, Measure for Measure, a drama Deborah K. Shuger has situated within a complex web of politico-theological discourses.
