Examining the influence of the biblical Psalms on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature, this study explores the imaginative, beautiful and ingenious as well as sometimes ludicrous and improbable ways in which the Psalms were 'translated'. Spanning ancient Israel to Renaissance and Reformation England, the book focuses on literature of major writers that ranges from Shakespeare and Milton to less prominent ones: George Gascoigne, Mary Sidney Herbert, and George Wither.

Examining the influence of the biblical Psalms on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature, this study explores the imaginative, beautiful and ingenious as well as sometimes ludicrous and improbable ways in which the Psalms were 'translated'. Spanning ancient Israel to Renaissance and Reformation England, the book focuses on literature of major writers that ranges from Shakespeare and Milton to less prominent ones: George Gascoigne, Mary Sidney Herbert, and George Wither.

Despite the widespread popular sense that the Bible and the works of Shakespeare are the two great pillars of English culture, and despite the long-standing critical recognition that the Bible was a major source of Shakespeare's allusions and references, there has never been a full-length, critical study of the Bible in Shakespeare's plays. The Bible in Shakespeare addresses this serious deficiency. Early chapters describe the post-Reformation explosion of Bible translation and the development of English biblical culture, compare the Church and the Theatre as cultural institutions...

The Bible in Shakespeare is a critical study of the links between the two great pillars of English culture, the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.